THE board of sugar miller Roxas Holdings Inc. on Friday said it approved the sale of more Treasury shares to a unit of Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co. Ltd.
In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Roxas Holdings sold some 241.78 million from its Treasury shares to First Agri Holdings Corp. for P7 apiece.
First Agri is an affiliate of First Pacific Natural Resources BV, a vehicle that owns First Pacific stake in Roxas Holdings.
The said price was slightly higher than the company’s closing price on Thursday at P6.99 per share.
With the sale, First Pacific now controls about 50.9 percent of Roxas Holdings, from the previous 34 percent. The company said this included the purchase of 35 million shares held by group chairman Pedro Roxas.
Before the deal, other principal stockholders of Roxas Holdings include Roxas and Co. Inc. with a 35-percent stake and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. with 3.79 percent.
Roxas and Co. also increased its investment by buying 33.1 million shares for P232 million from the market to have a 30-percent stake.
The company still has about 17.64 million in remaining Treasury shares.
The additional P1.7-billion equity raises Roxas Hodings’s total equity by 25 percent, from P6.93 billion to P8.63 billion.
Since last week company officials, including businessman Manuel Pangilinan, who now sits at the Roxas Holdings board, already announced First Pacific’s intention to infuse more cash into Roxas Holdings, which supplies about 18 percent to 20 percent of the country’s sugar production.
Pangilinan said the intention was to increase its ownership to as much as 51 percent of the company.
In a statement, Roxas said the company will use the additional equity of about P1.7 billion for plant upgrades, possible mergers and acquisitions, and to diversify its revenue and income base by expanding its ethanol business and developing power cogeneration.
“First Pacific and Roxas Holdings will continue to work for the consolidation of the industry in order for it to survive. We need to immediately bring plant utilization and efficiencies up,” Roxas said.
The company has facilities in Nasugbu in Batangas, where it started its operations since the 1920s, and bought Central Azucarera de la Carlota, a sugar-manufacturing company based in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, in 1995.
Roxas Holdings and its subsidiaries produce raw and refined sugar in different grades. Its units include Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc., Central Azucarera de la Carlota Inc. and bioethanol producer Roxol Bioenergy Corp.