RYM completes acquisition of Prime Holdings

A foreclosure sale of Prime Media Holdings Inc. has been executed, allowing RYM Business Management Corp. to acquire a 43-percent stake in the holding firm.

RYM—the same investor group that acquired a controlling stake in nickel miner Marcventures Holdings Inc. and the shell company of Bankard Inc.—foreclosed on 298.95 million common shares held by Neo Oracle Holdings Inc., which earlier defaulted on its loan obligations to RYM.

The foreclosure proceedings were initiated by RYM pursuant to a promissory note with pledge of shares dated April 2013.

Based on the disclosure, the parties traded the shares through the PSE on Friday to implement the foreclosure sale. That day, Prime Media’s shares surged by 25.32 percent and the company was the most actively traded stock at the bourse.

Following this transaction, market players are expecting a future infusion of new businesses through a backdoor-listing process.

Prime Media was originally incorporated in 1963 as Private Development Corp. of the Philippines. It later became PDCP Development Bank Inc. In 2000, the company again changed its name to First e-Bank Corp. before shifting to its current name in 2003, or after Banco de Oro Unibank took over operations.

Last year, Prime Media amended in its articles of incorporation extending its corporate life by another 50 years. Doris C. Dumlao