Delinquent shareholders

FOR INVESTORS who subscribed to the 1995-1997 equity offerings of gaming firm Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC)—then known as Sinophil Corp.—but have yet to fully pay until now, they have to pay up or lose their shares.
PLC, which was recently transformed to become the gaming investment arm of Belle Corp., has scheduled the public sale of delinquent stocks for March 2 this year.  Last October, PLC’s board declared as due and payable all unpaid subscriptions to the capital stock made during Sinophil’s initial public offering in 1995 and the subsequent private placements in 1996 and 1997.
To date, only 6.77 million or 21.8 percent of PLC’s outstanding shares are listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange since only fully paid shares can be listed. Over the last two decades, there wasn’t any motivation to demand payments from delinquent subscribers as the company was dormant anyway.
Now that the company has been revitalized into a gaming firm that owns half of the operations of the brand-new City of Dreams Manila and 34.5 percent of Pacific Online Systems Corp. (Loto), provider of lottery software and equipment to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, it’s time to make delinquent subscribers pay up.
As of Wednesday’s closing, there are about 16 million PLC shares left unpaid, based on an estimate by PLC chair Willy Ocier who is also vice chair of parent firm Belle Corp.  The subscription value is P1 per share which is also the par value.
“The figure will go down as owners pay up before the auction date,” Ocier said. Doris C. Dumlao

Concessionaire’s concession

SOME elements within the government agency in charge of regulating water rates may have attempted (and previously succeeded) in painting the two firms in charge of Metro Manila’s water supply as greedy companies, but the recent ruling of the arbitration panel in Singapore seems to have vindicated the position of the concessionaires.
More importantly, however, it looks like one concessionaire—Maynilad Water Services Inc., which is in charge of supplying water to Metro Manila’s west zone—is actually being magnanimous in victory.
We learned that, instead of implementing the full rate hike it had asked for in October 2013, the company will implement an increase of only 9.8 percent over its 2013 rates, including a P1 adjustment due to the fluctuation of the peso-dollar exchange rate.
According to Maynilad officials, the reduced rate hike is on account of an alternative business plan that the company submitted to the arbitration panel in Singapore, as well as in consideration of the government’s order to reduce capital expenditures going forward.
The full rate increase will also be staggered over a period of several years—roughly the equivalent of a P1 increase in rates per cubic meter for the next three years—instead of being implemented all in one go.
So as far as Maynilad is concerned, they won’t spend as much as they want to in order to further improve its services, while still maintaining the quality of its service to consumers.
And what of that line of attack used by critics that the concessionaires were passing on the cost of their corporate income taxes to consumers? Unsurprisingly, the arbitration panel allowed that to continue simply because that was what the original agreement from the 1990s had provided for.
The rate hike will allow Maynilad to complete its ongoing projects and let it maintain the water pressure it provides to households at 16 pounds per square inch (psi), which is the pressure level needed for water to travel up pipes to the second floor of an average home unaided by a water pump.
Most importantly, however, the arbitration panel’s decision reaffirms the faith of the investors’ community in that contracts between the government and the private sector will be upheld through the legal process—even when the government is playing the role of the antagonist, and even when they have to go overseas to guarantee a level playing field.
Ultimately, the winner will be the consumers. Daxim L. Lucas

No corporate buying

GIVEN their considerable financial muscle, it would have been easy for local corporations to corner the “Block of Four” Pope Francis’ Visit to the Philippines 2015 commemorative stamps.
But given the “unprecedented” demand for the stamps, of which PHLPost issued on Jan. 8 an initial run of 120,000 pieces, PHLPost has allowed only individual buyers to purchase the 30 mm x 40 mm stamps designed by on-the-spot stamp design contest winners Dave Arjay Tan, Salvador Banares, Bryan Michael Buna and Mark Leo Maac.
This is to prevent the commemorative stamps—the fastest selling in PHLPost history—from ending up in the hands of just a few.
PHLPost will implement the same “no corporate orders” policy for the Special Coinage Stamp souvenir sheets, measuring 9×9 cm, designed by PHLPost in-house designer Rodine Teodoro.
For the first time, PHLPost will issue 3D Embossing Hot Copper Foil Coinage Stamps, again marking the first visit to the Philippines of Pope Francis.
Only 7,000 pieces of the P200 denomination stamp will be issued in the initial run, and PHLPost also expects the stamps to be immediately snapped up.
The Pope Francis Special Coinage Stamp was launched last Wednesday at the SM North Edsa, coinciding with the opening of the Papal Exhibit at the Atrium, SM The Block. Tina Arceo-Dumlao

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