Aboitiz Equity gains P276.6M from sale of treasury shares

CONGLOMERATE Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) Inc. raised P276.6 million from the sale of treasury shares, taking advantage of a buoyant stock market.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, AEV said it had placed out 5.085 million common shares at P54.40 apiece.

AEV has about 50 million in treasury shares that its board had authorized to sell.

Of these, there are still about 28.2 million shares it can sell to boost funds for expansion and improve stock trading liquidity.

Companies with excess cash typically buy back shares from the open market when they feel their shares are undervalued.  They in turn divest these shares when they feel that prices are reasonable or when they need funds to fuel expansion plans.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures earlier raised P594 million by selling an initial tranche of  treasury shares back to the open market in September 2014.

It then unloaded 10.757 million shares at P55.25 apiece.

The conglomerate, whose flagship business is power, is also into banking, food and real estate businesses.

The company’s flagship business is in the power industry, from which it derives about 75 percent of its earnings. It has budgeted P88 billion to build more generating capacity.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures is also into banking (Union Bank of the Philippines), real estate (Aboitiz Land Inc.) and food (Pilmico Foods Corp.) businesses.

AEV is also expanding to new businesses, particularly infrastructure.