Emperador sets P5-B buyback plan

Tycoon Andrew Tan-led Emperador Inc. has unveiled a P5-billion two-year share buyback program to perk up “undervalued” shares as the group continues to expand its local and international businesses.

“It’s a good signal that if we have excess cash that we want to invest, we might as well invest in our company because we believe in our own story,” Kingson Sian, director at Emperador and president of its parent company Alliance Global Group Inc., said in a briefing after the liquor firm’s stockholders’ meeting yesterday. “It’s probably one of the better investments out there.”

“We believe it’s seriously undervalued. We believe that with P5-billion allotment, we can create shareholder’s value and bring the value to where it has to be,” Emperador president Winston Co said during the stockholders’ meeting. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA