Gervel is short for Geronimo Velasco
Credit to Author: EMETERIO SD. PEREZ| Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2019 17:05:40 +0000
Metropolitan Management Corp. (MMC) bought common shares in Republic Glass Holdings Corp. (RGHC) on July 2, 2019, July 12, 2019, July 24, 2019, July 25, 2019 and July 26, 2019 in five trades at different prices. The acquisition of 126,000 RGHC common shares increased its direct holdings in the company to 51,869,800 common shares from 51,743,800 common shares.
A public ownership report (POR) as of June 30, 2019 named MMC under “others” as holder of 51,743,800 RGHC common shares, or 7.58 percent of 682,065,632 outstanding common shares.
Aside from direct ownership of 50,069,800 RGHC common shares, MMC also indirectly owned 1.674 million RGHC common shares.
Republic Glass attributed the ownership of 164,137,652 common shares, or 24.06 percent, to its public stockholders, according to the POR.
The same POR listed Gervel Inc. as RGHC’s principal or substantial stockholder. It directly owns 462,417,595 common shares, or 67.79 percent. RGC Investment Corp., an affiliate, directly holds 324,000 common shares, or 0.04 percent.
The company’s POR listed RGHC’s nine-person board as direct holders of 3,442,585 common shares, or 0.47 percent. Geronimo F. Velasco Jr. is the company’s top stockholder with direct ownership of 2,904,010 RGHC common shares, or 0.02 percent.
Of the nine RGHC directors, two directly held a nominal common share each, namely Corazon S. De La Paz-Bernardo and Celso P. Vivas.
On Aug. 5, 2019, Republic Glass opened trading at P2.86, which was also its high; fell to a low of P2.83 and closed the session at P2.85.
Ownership profile
A general information sheet (GIS) as of June 14, 2019 showed Filipinos subscribed to 1,432,967,078 common shares of 4 billion authorized capital stock (ACS) with par value of P1 per share of Vulcan Industrial & Mining Corp. (VICMC). Foreigners subscribed to and paid for 17,032,922 common shares.
Of the Filipinos’ subscription to 1,432,967,078 VICMC common shares, 948,225,019 common shares were paid. National Book Store Inc. is Vulcan’s top stockholder with total ownership of 850 million common shares, or 58.621 percent.
As the principal stockholder, National Book Store’s Vulcan total ownership of 859 million common shares also includes 363,944,338 common shares that it indirectly owned.
PCD Nominee Corp. held 547,032,101 common shares, or 37.647 percent of 1.45 billion issued and outstanding Vulcan common shares, for Filipino beneficial stockholders, according to the GIS.
According to a public ownership report (POR), Vulcan attributed to the public stockholders the ownership of 584,741,704 common shares, which, as of June 30, 2019, represent 40.33 percent of issued and outstanding common shares.
On Aug. 5, 2019, Vulcan opened trading at P1.24, which was the stock’s session high, dropped to a low of P1.20 and closed at P1.21. It peaked at a month’s high of P1.68 and a month’s low of P1.20.
Stockholders
Anscor Consolidated Corp. (ACC) increased its holdings by 1,982,300 common shares in A. Soriano Corp. (ASC) to 1,305,356,346 common shares, or 52.21 percent, after it bought additional ASC common shares in July. Its acquisitions are as follows:
On July 8, July 10, July 12, July 15, July 23, July 25, and July 29, 2019, ACC bought 1.4 million ASC common shares at P7 each. On July 9, 2019, it acquired 200,000 ASC common shares at P6.948 each.
Anscor’s other acquisitions of additional 382,300 ANS common shares: 73,800 at P6.8809 each on July 1, 2019; 21,500 on July 2, 2019 at P7 each; 10,500 at P7 each on July 4, 2019; and 19,400 at P7 each on July 5, 2019; 64,600 at P7 each on July 11, 2019; 6,000 at P6.9417 each on July 16, 2019; 100,000 of 50,000 ASC common shares in each trade at P7 each on July 17 & 18, 2019; 85,500 at P7 each; and 1,000 at P7 each on July 24, 2019.
However, the list of A. Soriano’s top 100 stockholders as of June 30, 2019 listed Anscor as holder of 902,172,303 ASC common shares, which were then equivalent to 36.09 percent. This ownership does not make ACC the listed company’s majority stockholder.
Apparently, Anscor’s direct ownership of 902,172,303 ASC common shares does not include its indirect holdings of 401,121,743 ASC common shares, or 16.045 percent.
Thus, Ancor’s ownership should total 1,303,294,046 ASC common shares, or 52.13 percent, as of June 30, 2019.
The same POR listed ASC’s public stockholders as owners of 447,656,864 common shares, or 17.91 percent.
On Aug. 5, 2019, ANS common shares opened trading at P7.10, the stock’s high, fell to a low of P7 and closed the session at P7.10. The stock peaked at a 30-day high of P7.13 and a month’s low of P6.55.
Due Diligencer’s take
If the public stockholders would do their own computation, they would find only a fraction of a listed company’s outstanding common shares are traded daily. If they would be more resourceful, they would also discover that they do not own 10 percent of outstanding.
A listed company’s public stockholder may want to go over the list of a company’s stockholders by identifying them. They should not be satisfied by the list of stockholders, which does not identify which among them are affiliated with the owners.
Again, if SEC officials would not do their job by requiring listed companies to disclose the relationship of the business owners with their stockholders, it would be up to the public to do some computations themselves by going over the top 100 list and the public ownership reports.
In the POR, some if not all the listed companies report the public stockholders as the majority owners, which is impossible. If they are the majority stockholders, how come these companies’ boards, which include the so-called independent directors, are mostly nominees of the business owners?
Being publicly traded does not necessarily mean a listed company is also public. Having one’s common shares traded even daily won’t make a company public.
What, for instance, if in their research they would discover that most of those in the top 100 list of stockholders are related to the business owners, should they go to the SEC and tell the agency’s officials that they own less than 10 percent of outstanding as mandated under the SEC’s own rule? Just asking.
Email:esdperez@gmail.com