Long-planned Jolliville property dividends cleared

Calapan Waterworks is one of the operating units of 2Big Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the prepandemic plan of Ting family-led Jolliville Holdings Corp. to issue property dividends in the form of shares in its water and hydro-electric businesses at a downscaled valuation of P152.78 million.

The dividend value was revised down from the earlier disclosed amount of about P189.49 million, “attributed to the SEC’s valuation of the property dividend cost with specific identification,” Jolliville said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The property dividends of Jolliville, which trades under the ticker JOH, consist of common shares of 2Big Philippines (worth about P76 million) and common shares of Phil Hydro (worth P76.26 million).

The company is distributing 66 percent of its earnings to shareholders in the form of these tangible assets.

Entitled shareholders will receive 2,718 shares of Phil Hydro and 150 shares of 2Big Philippines for every 1,000 shares of Jolliville.

Par value reduction

The company said the adjustment in the entitlement ratio was due to the reduction in par value of Phil Hydro from P1 to P0.10.

“The reduction in par value of shares of Phil Hydro, however, will not affect the value of the shares to be received by the shareholders,” the disclosure said.

Shares of Jolliville surged by around 9 percent on Wednesday, giving it a market capitalization of P1.4 billion.

The property dividend issuance was first disclosed in 2018 after Jolliville had sold its majority stake in H20 Ventures Corp. to Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy. H20 Ventures is now PH Resorts Group Holdings, Inc.

READ: Jolliville readies property dividends.

2Big Philippines Inc., spun off from H2O Ventures, is in the water resources business through subsidiaries Calapan Waterworks Corp., Nation Water Corp., Greater Rosario Water Inc. and Tubig Bohol Corp.

Philippine Hydro leases and purchases land, marine, aquatic and environmental resources “to develop and conserve places with tourism value,” based on the group’s annual report.

It was earlier reported that after the property dividend issuance of Jolliville, 29.81 percent of Phil Hydro shares and 25.84 percent of Tubig would be owned by the public shareholders of Jolliville. – Doris Dumlao-Abadilla