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Ayala
Land Inc. has lately been having its ups and downs,
mostly the latter. It closed the week ended March 14,
2008 at P9.70, or 20 centavos higher than its session‘s
low of P9.50.
ALI hit
a high of P10, its opening, ending the session on value
turnover of P170.034 million, of which net foreign
selling accounted for P146,386,200, or 54.21 percent.
The
stock’s performance was not its worst or record low. In
the first quarter of 2006, ALI hit a high of P9.38 and a
low of P8.96. In the fourth quarter of 2007, ALI reached
a high of P14.75 and dropped to a low of P14.25.
ALI’s
continuing fall may affect the pricing of the company’s
planned issuance of 1 billion common shares and reduce
the proceeds that it expects from the offering.
ALI
shares have par value of P1 each.
Ayala Land
told the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the sale
of 1 billion shares—approved by its board last
month—would be submitted for ratification by
stockholders in the annual meeting on April 2, 2008. The
meeting will be at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila.
In a
filing, Ayala Land said the 1 billion shares might be
issued in exchange “for properties or assets and/or to
raise funds to acquire properties or assets…”
Despite
its plunge to P9.50, ALI was not the worst market
performer last week when it had value turnover of P1.452
billion. It was at No. 18 in the list of PSE’s 30
biggest losers.
In PSE’s
weekly monitor, Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) was at
the top but on small value turnover of P9,000,
indicating a single transaction. CAT dropped 40 percent
to P1.74 from P2.90, its close on February 18. The stock
had no trades until Friday.
Rarely
traded PNOC-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EDC) topped the list
of the week’s 30 top gainers. It closed on Thursday at
P24.50, up 40 percent, on value turnover of P54,950. It
did not have floor transaction on Friday.
PNOC-EC
is the remaining unit of the government-owned Philippine
National Oil Co., which is listed on the PSE. As of
December 31, 2007, PNOC owned 1,997,785,480 common
shares, or 99.789 percent. The rest is held by the
public with PCD Nominee Corp. holding for investors
503,500 common shares, or 0.0251 percent. Ninety-eight
individual stockholders are direct owners of the
remaining shares.
PNOC
used to own the entire outstanding capital stock of PNOC-Energy
Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC) until the latter’s
privatization in December 2006. Last year, PNOC sold its
remaining 60-percent holdings in PNOC-EDC through public
bidding won by the Lopez-owned Red Vulcan Holdings Corp.
In a
report, PNOC-EC said its outstanding shares consist of
common A and common B shares. PNOC-EC owns 1,522,253,065
shares of its common A shares and 475,532,415 of its
common B shares.
Despite
its stock-buyback program,
Vista
Land
and Landscapes Inc. kept falling. It hit a session’s
high of P3.50 on Friday and dropped to a low of P3.40
before closing at P3.45. Its close was its lowest in 30
sessions, according to the PSE monitor.
Vista Land
has been buying back its own shares in the open market.
It held 48.309 shares as of March 14 after reacquiring
1.01 million shares at P3.45; 13,000 shares at P3.50 and
207,000 at P3.45. The acquisition totaling 1.13 million
shares represents 8.203 percent of Friday’s volume of
13.775 million VLL shares with value turnover of
P48,096,750.
The
issuance of 1 billion common shares may be the reason
for ALI’s decline as the market may have already
absorbed or factored in the effect of the controversy
resulting from the explosion that hit a part of
Glorietta mall, which the company owns.
Despite
foreign selling and the presence of local investors in
its list of stockholders,
Ayala Land,
which has 13,035,763,040 outstanding common shares,
remains a majority-owned unit of Ayala Corp., which owns
6,639,009,512 common shares, or 26.618 percent, and
12,679,029,436 preferred shares, or 48.636 percent.
Ayala Land
said in a filing in connection with its annual
stockholders’ meeting that PCD Nominee holds for
foreigners 5,056,164,832 common shares, or 19.395
percent. Of these foreign-held shares, Hong Kong and
Shanghai Banking Corp. and Standard Chartered Bank hold
3,543,692,801 common shares and 1,048,693,741 common
shares, respectively, or 17.62 percent. |
