UK fund manager reports significant stakes in PH companies
UK-based Standard Life Aberdeen, Europe’s second biggest fund manager, has built up a 10.69 percent stake in Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands and 8.84 percent stake in property giant Ayala Land Inc., making it one of the top passive stockholders in these local companies.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Standard Life Aberdeen also reported significant minority shares held on behalf of managed funds in two other Ayala-led companies: 17.29 percent in Metro Cebu property developer Cebu Holdings Inc. and 5.12 percent in conglomerate Ayala Corp.
Outside of the Ayala group, Standard Life Aberdeen also reported a 6.22-percent stake in port terminal operator Asian Terminals Inc.
Based on Tuesday’s closing price of P105.10 per share, the British group’s 420.154 million shares in BPI were worth P44.16 billion while the 1.3 billion shares held in Ayala Land were worth P55.38 billion at a price per share of P42.60 per share.
The bloc of 331.96 million shares held in Cebu Holdings was valued at P1.74 billion while the 31.79 million shares in Ayala Corp. were worth P28.61 billion as of Tuesday’s close.
The stake in ATI was valued at P1.39 billion.
The ownership stake in these Philippine Stock Exchange-listed companies was disclosed by Standard Life Aberdeen plc as part of the requirement to report the assets under management of the unified group. This was was as a result of the completion of the court-sanctioned merger between Aberdeen Asset Management plc and Standard Life plc which became effective on Aug. 14.
Standard Life Aberdeen was created out of the £11-billion merger between Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management. The unified entity has offices in 50 cities around the world, servicing clients in 80 countries.
After the merger, group has about £660 billion in consolidated assets under management.
