Limited trading on listed stocks
Emeterio Sd. Perez
AS of Dec. 31, 2017, Vantage Equities Inc. (V) had six companies under it either as subsidiaries or affiliates.
These were e-Business Services Inc., Philequity Management Inc., iCurrencies Inc., Philequity Balanced Fund Inc., Philequity Foreign Currency Fixed Income Fund Inc. and eBiz Financial Services Inc.
As a group of companies, it holds office at the East Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange Rd., Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
In a general information sheet (GIS), Vantage Equities reported an authorized capital stock (ACS) of 5 billion common shares with par value of P1 per share, excluding 133.599 million treasury common shares, which the company said were equivalent to 3.32 percent.
Of the company’s ACS, 4.20 billion common shares were classified as subscribed and paid up. As of cut-off date, 602 Filipino stockholders owned 4.192 billion V common shares, or 99.83 percent, while 11 foreigners subscribed and paid for total holdings of 7.116 million V common shares, or 0.17 percent.
In the same GIS, Vantage Equities reported P3.782 billion “unrestricted/unappropriated retained earnings as of end of last fiscal year.” In an audited financial filing, Vantage Equities had retained earnings of P3.587 billion and P2.932 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2016, respectively, based on a “consolidated statements of financial position.”
2 classes of shares
As a group of companies, Arthaland Corp. has nine subsidiaries or affiliates, according to the company’s 2018 GIS. These are CPG Holdings Inc., AO Capital Holdings 1 Inc., Cazneau Inc., Cebu Lavana Land Corp., Emera Property Management Inc., Manchesterland Properties Inc., Savya Land Development Corp., Urban Property Holdings Inc. and Zileya Land Development Corp.
Unlike Vantage Equities, Arthaland has authorized capital stock (ACS) of 16,368.095,199 common shares with par value of P0.18 per common share, and 50 million preferred shares with par value of P1 per share.
Since Arthaland has two classes of shares with different par values, it has authorized capital of P2,996,257,135.82, which, when rounded to three decimal places equals P2.996 billion.
In the same GIS, Arthaland said of its 1,974 stockholders, 1,948 Filipinos own 4.93 billion common shares, or 91.89 percent; one holds 12.5 million preferred A shares while 11 hold 19.837 million preferred B shares.
All in all, Filipinos’ ownership is equivalent to 91.89 percent.
Arthaland did not name the nationalities of 14 stockholders. It identified them only as “various” as 13 of them own 388.009 Arthaland common shares, or 7.30 percent and attributed to only one 162,600 Arthaland preferred B shares, or 0.81 percent.
Due Diligencer’s take
When Vantage Equities’ common shares were last traded on July 19, 2018, the stock traded at P1.19 throughout the session on thin volume of 26,000 common shares. The same trend occurred on July 18, 2018 when a Vantage common share traded from opening to close at P1.20.
Again, the volume was even thinner at 4,000 common shares.
Vantage Equities listed all outstanding 4.20 billion common shares. This means on July 19, 2018, only a small fraction of the company’s listed common shares were traded. The public, however, wouldn’t know if the sellers and the buyers were all insiders.
The same holds true for Arthaland. Of the company’s 5.318 billion listed common shares, only 63,000 common shares were traded. The stock opened trading at P0.72, hit a high of P0.73 and dropped to a session’s low of P0.72 before closing at P0.73.
It’s up to the public investors to determine whether or not only insiders were engaged in the transactions of the common shares of Vantage Equities and Arthaland. What’s more important though is for a listed stock to continue trading.
Apparently, the 300 or so companies that have their common shares listed on PSE are traded by insiders. Which among them don’t allow insiders’ trading? Just asking.
esdperez@gmail.com
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