SMC president Ramon Ang AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–A privately held firm led by San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang picked up shares of the conglomerate from the open market in the last two weeks in a bid to stabilize prices after a recent slump.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, SMC reported that Ang along with Thomas Tan, also an incumbent director of SMC, acquired a total of 3.44 million shares at prices ranging from a low of P82.60 to a high of P88.06 per share.

The purchases were made between July 18 and July 25 through a company called Privado Holdings Corp., which is 62.5 percent owned by Ang and 37.5 percent by Tan.  The additional shares were worth over P290 million based on Monday’s trading price.

Following a slump in shares caused by the commentary on the IMF report, Ang earlier said SMC could buy back “to help small shareholders.”  SMC itself has yet to report any actual buyback of shares but the additional buying by Ang, now the single biggest stockholder of SMC, was in line with the businessman’s pronouncement of upbeat prospects for SMC.

Companies tend to buy their own shares from the stock market when they feel that prices are undervalued.

SMC’s shares previously slumped due to rumors linking it to an International Monetary Fund commentary about a “highly leveraged” conglomerate at risk of default.

Ang had issued a statement refuting the rumors, noting that SMC’s consolidated cash and cash equivalent stood at P152.3 billion while its gearing ratio, was at 3.1 times net debt to cash flow based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), was lower than the 5.5x stipulated in its loan covenants.

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