MPTC gives up permit to offer securities

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the tollroad unit of the Metro Pacific group, has given up its registration and permit to offer securities to the public following a capital restructuring and delisting from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved MPTC’s petition for the voluntary revocation of its permit to sell securities. Upon approval of the petition, MPTC will be exempted from the filing of reportorial requirements.

MPTC has registered securities composed of about 4.97 billion common shares with a par value of P1 per share and a permit to sell these shares to the public.

About 99.88 percent of MPTC’s shares are owned by infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). Given its inability to comply with the minimum public ownership of 10 percent, MPTC filed a petition for voluntary delisting from the PSE.

Parent firm MPIC afterwards conducted a tender offer for the remaining shares of the tollroad unit at P6.50 per share. MPTC was stricken off the roster of the PSE on Dec. 21, 2012.

In early 2013, MPTC implemented a reverse stock split and amended its articles of incorporation to reflect the capital restructuring.

Based on the reverse stock split, the par value of the shares was increased from P1 to P100 per share but the number of shares was reduced from 5.4 million to 54 million. Through this exercise, the company reduced the number of shares and shareholder base without changing its equity.

After the reverse stock split, MPTC ended up with only 265 shareholders, of which 103 hold at least 100 shares. Doris C. Dumlao