ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. holds PDRs; ABS-CBN Corp. owns ABS-CBN, DZMM
Credit to Author: Emeterio SD. Perez| Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:20:08 +0000
ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. holds Philippine depositary receipts (PDRs) before their conversion into common shares in ABS-CBN Corp. The latter owns the ABS-CBN broadcast network and radio station DZMM, which are controlled by the Lopez family.
As of Dec. 31, 2019, ABS-CBN Corp. has 883,294,529 issued common shares, of which 21,322,561 are treasury shares, according to a public ownership report (POR). This left ABS-CBN with 861,971,968 outstanding common shares. Of this, the company attributed the ownership of 367,185,008 common shares, or 42.60 percent of the outstanding, to its public stockholders.
The website of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) listed ABS-CBN as having 861,971,968 outstanding common shares — the same number that was reported in the POR. The website also showed ABS-CBN having 872,122,352 listed shares and 883,294,629 issued shares.
The difference between the 883,294,629 ABS-CBN shares and the outstanding ABS-CBN common shares is 21,322,661 shares, which ABS-CBN holds in treasury — the same number the company reported in its POR.
On Feb. 17, 2020, ABS-CBN common shares opened trading at P17.14, hit a high of P17.48, dropped to a low of P16.86, and closed at P17.48. The stock peaked at a 30-day high of P20 and fell to a 30-day low of P16.02.
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Ayala Corp. (AC) spent P1,309,817,585.17 of the P10 billion the company has earmarked for a buyback program. As of Monday, the holding company has repurchased 1,689,210 common shares, which it classified as the “total number of shares purchased to date.” This translates to an average buyback price of P775.402. AC, which was founded in 1834 and listed on the PSE in 1976, said “the total amount of shares repurchased includes incidental costs.”
In a filing dated Feb. 7, 2020, AC said it increased its issued common shares to 631,195,990 from 631,162,239 after issuing 33,751 common shares to various executives who availed themselves of the “Employee Stock Option Plan.”
The same disclosure also said AC increased its outstanding to 626,717,346 common shares from 626,683,595. Its preferred shares remained the same.
Besides the common shares, AC also included in its outstanding capital stock 12 million preferred A shares; 28 million preferred B shares Series 1; 30 million preferred B Series 2; and 200 million voting preferred shares.
After buying back 157,840 common shares at P749 each on Monday, AC said it reduced the number of its outstanding common shares to 625,701,136 from 625,858,976. So did its treasury shares, which went up to 5,494,854 common shares from 5,337,014 common shares
AC common shares opened trading on Monday at P750, hit a high of P755, dropped to a low of P746.50 and closed at P750. The stock peaked at a 30-day high of P803 and fell to a 30-day low of P695.50.
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Businessman Ramon S. Ang wholly owns Far East Cement Corp., according to a January 31 POR. He directly holds 1,317,857,139 common shares, or 26.36 percent of the 5,000,000,005 outstanding common shares in Eagle Cement Corp. (ECC). His son, John Paul L. Ang, is one of the directors of Eagle’s 11-person board and directly holds 96,428,569 ECC common shares, or 1.93 percent, according to the report.
Monica L. Ang indirectly owns 123,000 ECC common shares, while nine directors hold a nominal share each. The board collectively owns 1,414,408,717 ECC common shares, or 28.29 percent, while Eagle’s public stockholders own 574.877 million common shares, or 11.5 percent of the outstanding.
Besides being one of the ECC’s directors — which counts among them four independent directors (IDs) — John Paul is also the cement firm’s president and chief executive officer.
The company’s four IDs are Melinda Gonzales-Manto, Ricardo C. Marquez, Martin S. Villarama Jr. and Jose P. Perez. The elder Ang is the board chairman.
On Monday, ECC common shares opened trading at their high of P12.50, dropped to low of P12 and closed at P12.02. The stock peaked at a 30-day high of P14.88 and fell to a 30-day low of P11.80, higher than its opening of P12.02 on February 14, when the stock hit a high of P12.40, fell to a low of P12 but closed higher at P12.08.
Why are the Zobels buying out the public of their AC common shares? Just asking.
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