Globalport sells P4B in shares

Romero-led Globalport 900 Inc. has sold over P4 billion worth of unlisted shares to comply with the Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) 10 percent minimum public float requirement.

In a disclosure, Globalport, which manages two major cargo and passenger sea terminals in Manila’s Tondo district through subsidiaries, said its major shareholder Sultan 900 Inc. sold 230.79 million shares to unidentified investors on Monday.

These were taken out of Sultan’s 2.097 billion shares in Globalport. The parent firm was left with 1.923 billion common shares following the transaction.

“In view of the sale, PORT’s public ownership is expected to increase from 2,590,3002 common shares to 233,380,300 common shares representing 10.82 percent of (Globalport’s) total outstanding shares,” the Romero firm told the local bourse.

This brought to 23 the number of companies that remained noncompliant with the PSE public float requirement.

Three in the list have filed petitions for voluntary delisting while another three are already under trading suspension, the bourse announced in a memorandum posted on Monday. Some of the remaining companies have asked for a grace period to comply with the requirement.

The remaining 17 companies that may face trading suspension next year due to non-compliance to the public float requirement are: Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., Alphaland Corp., Synergy Grid & Development Phils. Inc., Manchester International Holdings Unlimited Corp., LT Group Inc., SPC Power Corp., Vivant Corp., Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., Mariwasa Siam Holdings Inc., Filinvestment Development Corp., Southeast Asia Cement Holdings Inc., PAL Holdings Inc., Allied Banking Corp., Maybank ATR-Kim Eng Financial Corp., San Miguel Brewery Inc., PNOC Exploration Corp., and San Miguel Properties Inc.

The three companies that have started voluntary delisting procedures are Eton Properties Philippines Inc., First Metro Investment Corp. and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

The three noncompliant companies which are already under trading suspension are Cosmos Bottling Corp., NextStage Inc. and Philcomsat Holdings Corp.

In the meantime, those that have requested the PSE for additional time to comply with the minimum public float were the LT Group, San Miguel Brewery and San Miguel Properties.

Public companies that will fail to meet the 10 percent minimum public float requirement will have their shares delisted starting January next year. This means the sale of shares may only be done via over-the-counter transactions, making them harder to dispose of.

Originally posted: 7:42 pm | Monday, December 10th, 2012