Issue over filing fees. Lopez Inc has withdrawn its tender offer to buy at P2.98354 each the remaining 7,979,840 shares in City Resources Corp. (CRC) which it does not own and are held by the public investors. It made the unexpected move a few hours after it submitted in the morning of January 16, 2008, a disclosure informing the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) of the tender offer. In a follow-up filing in the afternoon of the same day, Lopez Inc. told the exchange it was  withdrawing the offer as it “is discussing an issue with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the amount of the filing fees to be paid for the mandatory tender offer.”  Lopez Inc. is the unlisted holding company of the Lopez family that owns 55.31 percent of the outstanding shares in Benpres Holdings Corp. Its stockholders are the “respective holding companies of the families of Oscar M. Lopez, Manuel M. Lopez and Presentacion L. Psinakis.” CRC hit a high of P26 on January 10, 2007. It closed at P15 on January 21, 2007. 

Misleading list. Banco de Oro Universal Bank has already taken over Philippine Commercial International Bank ((PCIB), which owned PCI Leasing and Finance Inc. With the Sy-controlled BDO’s takeover, PCIB ceased to be the stockholder of its units. This was what PCI Leasing did on May 31, 2007,  when it listed Banco de Oro-EPCIB as its biggest stockholder, owning 1,840,114,698 shares, or 89.09 percent. PCD Nominee Corp. held as of the same date 204,430,254 shares, or 9.45 percent, for Filipinos, and 40,782,555 shares, or 1.89 percent, for foreigners.  But by the end of 2007, a disclosure posted on the PSE web site restored PCIB as PCI Leasing’s majority stockholder, with 1,840,115,326 shares, or 85.0931 percent. The holdings of PCD Nominee dropped to 190,715,254 shares, or 8.819303 percent, for Filipinos, and 40,666,715 shares, or 1.880563 percent, for foreigners. BDO peaked at P63 on December 10 and plunged to a low of P49 on January 22, 2008. 

Equity update. The merger of PCIB with Banco de Oro Universal Bank has increased the number of BDO shares available for acquisition by foreigners. In a filing, BDO, in which foreigners used to own 40 percent, said PCD Nominee now holds 402,585,868 shares, or 17.49 percent, for foreigners and 510,903,992 BDO shares, or 22.19 percent, for Filipinos. This equity structure opens up more buying opportunities for foreign funds that may want to invest in BDO shares. SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), one of the holding companies controlled by businessman Henry Sy Sr. and his family, owned, as of November 30,  2007, 1,119,918,064 shares, or 48.649 percent of which 277,898,947 shares, or 12.072 percent, are held by its units, such as Shoemart Inc. SM Development Corp., Primebridge Holdings and Multi-Realty Development Corp. As of December 31, 2007, SMIC directly owned 633,821,302 shares, or 27.53 percent. 

Buying them out. KS Investments Pet. Ltd. of Singapore bought 203,292,203 shares in its unit Keppel Philippine Marine Inc., raising its ownership equivalent to 93.1 percent from 82.9 percent of 1,994,453,052 outstanding shares. In a filing, Keppel Marine said KS Investments paid P508,475,635 in buying the shares from January 16 to 18, 2007. The acquisition cost translates to P2.501 per share. Keppel Marine did not identify the sellers. As of end-2007, KS Investments owned 1,620,412,630 shares, or 81.245965 percent. PCD Nominee held 87,955,569 shares for Filipinos, and 13,135,671 shares for foreigners.  The other stockholders of Keppel Marine include SM Development Corp. with 86,602,900 shares, or 4.342188 percent; Henry Sy Sr., 37,641,986 shares, or 1.887334 percent; and SMIC, 26,890,835 shares, or 1.348281 percent.

With these holdings, the Sy group is represented in Keppel Marine’s board by Rogelio Cabunag, president and chief operating officer of SM Development. KSE earlier bought 27.578 million KPM shares from PNOC Shipping and Transport Corp. at P2.20 each. Keppel Marine hit a high of P2.60 on January 18, 2007, and a low of P2.20 on January 22, 2007. 

Insider’s trade. Willy Ng Ocier, chairman and president of Pacific Online Systems Corp., and vice chairman of Belle Corp., has been accumulating Pacific Online shares by buying in the open market. As of January 21, 2008, he has piled up 11,231,200 shares, or 5.87867 percent, up from 900,100 shares as of April 13, 2007. As of December 31, 2007, Ocier owned 5,000,100 shares, or 2.5114 percent. Belle is one of the top stockholders of Pacific Online with 24,608,761 shares, or 12.3601 percent. Ocier directly owned 24,522,166 Belle shares, or 0.3861 percent, as of December 31, 2007. Pacific Online reached a high of P11.50 on December 10, 2007 and dropped to a low of P9.00 on January 22, 2008. Belle hit a high of P1.26 on December 20, 2007 and a low of P0.95 on January 22, 2008.

www.duediligencer.com

CEBU Air Inc., owner and operator of budget airliner Cebu Pacific, has deferred an initial public offering (IPO) planned for February citing extreme volatility in global markets.

Anscor to buy Cirrus Holdings for P572M

LISTED A. Soriano Corp. (Anscor), a holding company with diverse investments, will acquire for $13.95 million, or about P572 million, a US-based firm engaged in the contract and temporary staffing and permanent placement of nurses and related health-care professionals in the United States.

STATE-CONTROLLED Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) will be issuing licenses to two US-based casino operators that will locate in Aseana Business Park’s Pagcor City in Parañaque.

STOCKS Wednesday rose, ending a seven-day slide that erased $15 billion of market value, after the US Federal Reserve unexpectedly cut a key-interest rate to stop the world’s biggest economy from slipping into recession.