INSIDER’S trades 1. As of May 31, 2008, San Miguel Corp. Retirement Fund (SMCRF) directly owned 560.12 million shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) consisting of 409.641 million A shares and 150.479 million B shares, up from 557.783 million shares consisting of 409.306 million A shares and 148.478 million B shares as of April 30, 2008. The increase resulted from the pension plan’s acquisition in the open market of 2.336 million SMC shares. In addition, SMCRF also owned 3.302 million SMC A shares and 36.559 million SMC B shares lodged with Philippine Central Depository (PCD)-nominee corp. as of March 31, 2008. At 30-day high of P47, the SMCRF-owned SMC A shares had market value of P19.253 billion and its SMC B shares P7.373 billion, or a total of P26,626,583,158.

Advances from San Miguel. SMCRF has been buying SMC shares with borrowed money or advances from San Miguel, which reached P38.112 billion as of end-March. 2008. These advances, SMC said in a filing posted on the web site of the Philippine Stock Exchange, is “subject to interest of 6.5 percent per annum,” which it added is “included as part of trade and other receivables.”

SMC reported trade and other receivables of P61.021 billion as of the end of the  first quarter of 2008, slightly down from P61.879 billion as of the same cutoff period in 2007,  based  on audited report.  (The SMC unaudited quarterly report in 2007 placed the trade and other receivables at P42.329 billion, down from P43.275 billion in the same period in 2006.)

Insiders’ trades 2. In a filing in connection with the sale of securities of company insiders, Lodestar Investment and Holdings Corp. told regulators that Virginia Gaisano, chairman, sold 8,846,900 shares at P10.25 each. Geraldine Gaisano did better by selling 558,000 Lodestar shares at P10.75 and one million shares at P11.50. All these trades took place on June 10, 2008. Earlier disclosures showed Virginia bought 941,000 shares at P20 each on December  4, 2007,  while Alfonso Anggala, Lodestar president, bought 41,l00 shares at P8.20 each on April 10, 2008; 10,000 shares at P8.10 on April 11, 2008; and one million shares at P7.20 on April 17, 20008. Anggala is the indirect owner of Lodestar shares in the name of wife Geraldine, who, as of April 17, 2008, was listed as owner of 11.051 million shares in the company. The biggest winner was Johnny S. Anggala, a director, who sold 3.99 million Lodestar shares at P15.75 on February 4, 2008. On December 4, 2007, he grossed P81,511,625 from the sale of shares at prices ranging from a high of P21.25 to a low of P20.

Not operating. Lodestar—now controlled by the Anggala-Gaisano Group of Cebu—has not been operating since it became an investment holding company in 2003. Being nonoperational, it has piled up a deficit of P42.628 million as of March 31, 2008. Incorporated as a mining company in 1974, Lodestar “was engaged in the development of several gold and chromite mining claims in Masbate.” These ventures failed that its new owners converted Lodestar into an investment company. Despite all this, Lodestar, which has 37.306 million outstanding shares, is still one of the market’s most traded stocks. It hit a 30-day high of P11.50 on June 10, 2008 on value turnover of P199.855 million. A filing listed PCD Nominee Corp. as the record owner of 36.585 million Lodestar shares, or 98.07 percent, of which Abacus Securities Corp. holds 23.423 million shares, or 62.79 percent.

Dealing with SEC. On June 8, 2008, ATR Kim Eng Financial Corp. paid the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) P115,000 as penalty for the late submission of 2007 annual report, which was posted on the PSE web site on the day SGV & Co. finished the audited report on May 15, 2008. The following day, May 16, 2008, the audited report of SMC was posted on the PSE web site. This means ATR was even “more punctual,” than SMC by one day but was penalized. Apparently, Renato Leveriza Jr., ATR director and executive vice president, was not very convincing when he wrote Justina Callangan, director of SEC’s corporation finance department, and apologized for the delay in the submission of the annual report because “we have a new set of external auditors who needed time to familiarize and finalize the company’s audited financial statements.” SMC, on the other hand, simply informed the SEC that it would not be able to meet the deadline for the submission of annual reports and got a reprieve. It really pays to hire good lawyers.

AYALA-owned Integreon Managed Solutions Inc. has acquired New York-based Datum Legal, Inc., a leading litigation support and electronic data discovery (EDD) company for $10 million.

PLDT still keen on selling interest in cable business

IT looks like the country’s telecoms giant is still looking for ways to get out of the cable-television business.

THE country’s second-largest fastfood brand, McDonald’s, is shelving its plans to go public due to weak market conditions.

Stock prices declined yesterday for the second day this week, sending the benchmark to its lowest in almost 20 months, on concern that rising inflation will cut earnings and increase costs.

ENVIRONMENTAL activists on Thursday picketed the South Korean Embassy in Makati City and demanded the pullout of Korean investments in the administration’s flagship mining project in Rapu Rapu Island, Albay.

Due Diligencer:  INSIDER’S trades

1. As of May 31, 2008, San Miguel Corp. Retirement Fund (SMCRF) directly owned 560.12 million shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) consisting of 409.641 million A shares and 150.479 million B shares, up from 557.783 million shares consisting of 409.306 million A shares and 148.478 million B shares as of April 30, 2008.