Jolliville readies property dividends

After selling its majority stake in H20 Ventures Corp. (H20) to Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, Jolliville Holdings Corp. plans to issue property dividends to its shareholders in the form of shares in its water and hydro-electric businesses.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Jolliville said its board had approved the declaration of P185.37 million worth of property dividends of Jolliville equivalent to a value of 65.85 percent per Jolliville share.

The property dividends will comprise of 42.225 million shares of Tubig Pilipinas Corp. carried at P2.59 per share and around 76 million shares of Philippine Hydro Electric Ventures Inc. (Phil Hydro) carried at P1 a share, the disclosure said.

A company spokesperson explained that after the property dividends, 29.81 percent of shares of Phil Hydro and 25.84 percent of Tubig would be owned by the public shareholders of Jolliville.

Entitled shareholders will receive 27 shares of Phil Hydro and 15 shares of Tubig Pilipinas for every 100 shares of Jolliville. Fractional shares will be converted into cash and released to the shareholders at the same time as the property dividends, the disclosure said.

Carrying values are computed based on financial statements of both subsidiaries as of end-September.

Stock pundits said this could mean that Jolliville— which is led by businessman Jolly Ting—was preparing to spin off these units.

Shares of Jolliville went up by 8.18 percent on Tuesday after the property dividend declaration was announced. At its closing price of P5.95 per share, this gave the company a market capitalization of around P1.55 billion.