Insiders’ trades
Emeterio Sd. Perez
KORMASINC Inc. is the majority stockholder of Vitarich Corp. (VITA). Prior to its acquisitions of additional VITA common shares, it directly owned 2.168 billion common shares or 70.988 percent of 3.054 billion outstanding common shares.
On July 20, 2018, Kormasinc increased its direct ownership of VITA common shares to 2.169 billion VITA common shares, equivalent to 71.002 percent.
Juan Arturo Iluminado C. de Castro is one of 11 members of the board of Vitarich. A filing posted July 26, 2018 on the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) showed his direct ownership of 4.758 million VITA common shares or 0.156 percent.
De Castro bought 34,000 VITA common shares at P2.44 each on July 20, 2018 and 16,000 VITA common shares at P2.42 each on July 23, 2018. The acquisitions increased his direct ownership of VITA common shares to 4.808 million common shares or 0.157 percent.
At Vitarich common shares closing price of P2.61 each on July 27, 2018, Kormasinc’s 3.054 billion common shares had paper value of P7.971 billion.
De Castro’s 4.808 million common shares made him multi-millionaire with his paper worth hitting P12.549 million based on his average buying price of P2.43 per share.
Ownership profile
In a PSE posting, Lopez Holdings Corp. (LPZ) increased the number of outstanding common shares it owns to 4.63 billion from 4.629 billion common shares. It said this resulted from the acquisition of 860,000 LPZ common shares by insiders under the company’s employee stock purchase plan (ESPP).
As a result, Lopez Holdings said its public float of common shares increased to 44.94 percent from 44.93 percent. The company’s foreign ownership remains at 13.1 percent, according to the company’s disclosure.
Lopez Holdings reported in an amended general information statement (GIS) 4.63 billion outstanding common shares out of an authorized capital stock of five billion common shares.
Of 4.63 billion outstanding LPZ common shares, 8,481 Filipinos, according to the company’s 2018 GIS,
subscribed to 3.998 billion common shares or 86.367 percent of 4.63 billion outstanding LPZ common shares.
On the other hand, 20 foreigners subscribed to and paid for 631.981 million LPZ common shares or 13.651 percent.
(Note. When added, the percentages exceeded 100 percent by 0.018 because of the rounding of numbers.)
At the same time, Lopez Holdings said 8,599 Filipino stockholders paid for 3.998 billion LPZ common shares, or 86.349 percent.
The Lopezes are the majority stockholders of Lopez Holdings thru unlisted Lopez Inc., which the same GIS listed it as holder of 2.455 billion LPZ common shares or 53.025 percent.
Filipino-controlled
In a public ownership report (POR) dated June 30, 2018, Holcim Philippines listed its public stockholders as holders of 920.377 million Holcim common shares or 14.26 percent.
Holcim said it has three principal stockholders with combined holdings of 5.532 billion Holcim common shares or 85.74 percent. As the biggest stockholder, Union Cement Holdings Corp. owns 3.906 billion Holcim common shares or 60.55 percent.
The two others are B.V. Holderfin, 1.168 billion Holcim common shares or 18.11 percent and Cemco Holdings Inc., 456.69 million Holcim common shares or 7.08 percent. Union Cement also topped the list of Holcim’s top 100 stockholders along with B.V. Holderfin.
However, Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co. Ltd. owned more Holcim common shares than Cemco. The top 100 list showed the Japanese company with 594.953 million Holcim common shares or 9.22 percent against Cemco’s 456.69 million Holcim common shares or 7.08 percent.
As record stockholder, PCD Nominee Corp. held 160.829 million Holcim common shares or 2.49 percent, and 134.525 million Holcim common shares or 2.08 percent for foreigners and Filipinos, respectively.
In a consolidated quarterly financial filing, Holcim had total current assets of P13.444 billion against total current liabilities of P17.313 billion.
Due Diligencer’s take
It’s obvious that the acquisitions of additional VITA common shares by Kormasinc resulted from open market transactions. The identities of the sellers in a disclosure posted on the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange were not included in the filing.
The case of Lopez Holdings is another story. In an explanatory note to a filing, it identified the owners of Lopez Inc. as “the holding company of the Lopez family….” owned by the respective holding companies of the families of Oscar M. Lopez, Manuel M. Lopez, Eugenio Lopez 3rd and his siblings, and Lauro L. Panganiban 3rd and his siblings.”
As known among public investors, certain listed companies issue to their executives and employees common
shares out of their authorized capital stock.
In most cases, they sell common shares to employees and executives at a discount.
By the way, Lopez Holdings said it paid its nine directors P51.53 million in 2017, the same amount which “all other officers and directors unnamed received” in 2017.
In addition, Lopez Holdings paid “all other officers and directors as a group unnamed” bonus of P41.93 million.
Was the P51.53 million pays and perks Lopez Holdings paid the board and the salary only a coincidence? Just asking.
esdperez@gmail.com
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