BIZ BUZZ: Legarda son getting an ABS-CBN seat?

It seems that young businessman Leandro Leviste is not done with his new—and, frankly, strange—investments.

Leviste, the 31-year-old founder of Solar Philippines, has just increased his ownership stake in media giant ABS-CBN Corp.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ABS-CBN revealed that Leviste’s stake in the media company is now at 10 percent from 8.5 percent previously.

His companies, LL Holdings Inc. and Countryside Investments Holdings Corp., now own 90 million of shares of ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

READ: Leviste scion gains foothold in ABS-CBN

Now the question arises: Will someone from the ABS-CBN’s 11-seat board of directors be ejected to make way for Leviste?

Leviste himself seems uncertain but optimistic. In a recent interview with One News, Leviste said he wanted to “respect” the company, in that he would wait for ABS-CBN to disclose any update.

Let’s see if his investment will earn him a seat in the company whose franchise renewal was rejected by lawmakers years ago.

This is an interesting turn of events, especially since Leviste’s mother, Sen. Loren Legarda, a former ABS-CBN anchor, abstained from voting on the franchise renewal in Congress. And now it seems her son is hell-bent on “saving” ABS-CBN and its displaced employees. —MEG J. ADONIS

Evicting a Japanese firm

A fresh legal tussle has ensued between listed MRC Allied Inc. and a Japanese firm and its local subsidiary over a real estate property in Cebu province.

In a disclosure on Wednesday, MRC Allied said it filed a criminal complaint through its president and CEO Augusto Cosio Jr. against Kyocera Corp. chair Goro Yamaguchi, Kyocera president Hideo Tanimoto, and Kyocera executive officer and Kyocera Crystal Devices Philippines Inc. president Katsayuki Waki.

MRC Allied lodged the complaint before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor in Cavite province over Kyocera’s alleged “malicious, fraudulent and deceitful scheme.”

The former claimed there was an attempt to divest them of ownership and rights over the 34,750 square meters of industrial estate property in Naga City in Cebu province.

“Another count for the said offense was charged in the same criminal complaint for the malicious, fraudulent and deceitful scheme of Kyocera Group specifically designed to render moot and futile the unlawful detainer case filed by MRC [Allied] to recover possession of the aforementioned industrial estate property,” it added. An unlawful detainer case is used to evict a tenant from a property.

MRC Allied resorted to this latest legal action upon learning that Kyocera (formerly Kinseki) allowed Kyocera Crystal Devices Philippines to occupy the said property sans its consent, thus breaching the contract of lease.

MRC Allied first filed a case against the entities in April seeking P400 million in damages. However, the judge suspended the pretrial proceedings to allow for mediation between the parties.

Despite several discussions, subsequent events prevented them from reaching a settlement.

MRC Allied filed the new case on Tuesday. —Jordeene B. Lagare