Liberty tender offer set at P2.20 per share
VEGA Telecom Inc., now jointly owned by the country’s two leading telecom firms, has offered to buy out minority shareholders of Liberty Telecom Holdings Inc. at a price of P2.20 per share in line with plans to delist the telecom holding firm.
In a tender offer report filed on the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, Vega Telecom said it’s making a tender offer for up to 165.88 million common shares representing 12.82 percent of the issued and outstanding common stock of Liberty.
The price of P2.20 per share is before the stock transaction tax, which shall be for the tendering
shareholder’s account at the completion of the tender offer, which will start on Aug.24 and expire on Sept. 21 this year.
“The offer price of P2.20 is above, and a premium on, the prospective fair value range of P0.08 to P0.33 per common share of LIB, as provided in the valuation report and fairness opinion issued by Punongbayan & Araullo, an independent accredited auditor,” Vega Telecoms said in a notice to shareholders of Liberty.
“Since the offer price is approximately more than six times the maximum of the fair value range of the shares of LIB, we believe that the offer price is magnanimous and more than fair and reasonable. Please be assured that the interests of all LIB shareholders, including those of the minority shareholders’, have been taken into consideration in the terms and conditions of the tender offer,” the company added.
The maximum total purchase price of the tender offer shares that may be payable by the
bidder under the tender offer is P364.94 million.
“The purpose of the tender offer is for LIB to comply with the requirements for voluntary delisting of its common shares with the Philippine Stock Exchange,” Vega Telecoms said in a tender offer report filed at the PSE.
Liberty is now jointly owned by PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom which have teamed up to buy out the telecom assets of conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
Trading on Liberty was halted for one hour at the PSE from 9 AM to 10 AM on Monday to allow investors to digest the tender offer report.
The tender offer is a mechanism which gives minority shareholders the opportunity to exit when there’s a change in shareholder control.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, for its part, has vowed to ensure fair pricing for this voluntary tender offer of Liberty shares.
As of Friday’s closing, Liberty was priced at P2.42 per share, giving it a market capitalization of around P3.7 billion.
