MPIC to delist subsidiary Metro Pacific Tollways from PSE

MANILA, Philippines—Infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. has decided to delist its tollroad subsidiary Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. from the Philippine Stock Exchange instead of shoring up the latter’s public ownership to the minimum requirement of 10 percent.

MPIC, which is led by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, disclosed on Monday that the company’s board had approved the filing of a voluntary delisting by MPTC and a tender offer by MPIC to buy all minority shareholders of its subsidiary.

MPTC, in a separate disclosure said, this decision was made after due evaluation and study of the options available to the company. Trading on MPTC shares will be halted Tuesday, to allow the investing public to digest this disclosure on delisting.

Parent firm MPIC, for its part, has obtained board approval to conduct a tender offer for the common shares of the tollroad unit for purposes of complying with the requirements and conditions for the proposed voluntary delisting from the PSE.

MPIC is thus offering to acquire the remaining shares held by the MPTC minority shareholders consisting of up to 7.84 million common shares and representing up to 0.15 percent of its total issued and outstanding capital stock.

Listed companies with a public ownership of less than 10 percent face trading suspension by the first trading day of 2013 if they are unable to meet the 10 percent requirement for continued listing on the PSE.

During the trading suspension, sale of shares may be effected only outside the trading system of the PSE (over the counter) and these will be subject to a capital gain tax of between 5 and 10 percent. On the contrary, trades on shares of listed companies enjoy the preferential tax rate of one-half of 1 percent.

Apart from capital gain taxes on sale of shares—equivalent to 5 percent for transactions up to P100,000 and 10 percent for those in excess of P100,000—trades on suspended companies will be slapped with a documentary stamp tax of 75 centavos on each P200 of the par value of the stock.