Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of the country’s largest conglomerates, said Tuesday it obtained shareholders’ approval to delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange.
MPIC chairman and president Manuel Pangilinan said during the company’s special stockholders meeting that more than two-thirds of shareholders approved the resolution for the company to voluntary delist from the local bourse.
Shareholders owning 22.3 billion MPIC shares, or equivalent to 77.7 percent of total outstanding common shares, voted in favor of delisting, while shareholders owning 69.38 million shares or less than 1 percent voted against it.
MPIC said with the shareholders’ approval, the consortium of companies planning to take the company private would launch the tender offer to acquire shares owned by minority shareholders on Aug. 9 which would run until Sept. 7. MPIC expects to delist by Oct. 9.
The consortium, composed of Metro Pacific Holdings Inc., MIG Holdings Inc., GT Capital Holdings Inc. and Mit-Pacific Infrastructure Holdings Corp., offered to acquire all outstanding MPIC common shares other than those they already own at P5.20 apiece.
“We are pleased with the result from the MPIC shareholder meeting which allows the tender offer to begin, the ultimate objective of the vote today. Since announcing our offer price, we have received favorable feedback from the market, with institutional investors and stock brokerages stating that it is fair and acceptable. Therefore, we look forward to a successful completion of the delisting transaction,” said Christopher Young, executive director of First Pacific Co. Ltd., the parent company of MPIC.
Pangilinan said with the impending exit of MPIC from the local bourse, the group still planned to list its tollways, hospital and water utility firms in the PSE which woud allow shareholders to invest directly in the underlying assets of the group.
Pangilinan said the tollways group was planning to conduct an initial public offering as early as 2024 to raise fresh capital to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects.
The hospital group is also considering an IPO, while Maynilad Water Services Inc. is required to list its shares on the local bourse under the concession agreement.
Under the voluntary delisting requirements of the PSE, the MPIC common shares to be tendered in the tender offer, together with the common shares owned by the bidders and the qualifying common shares of its directors should constitute at least 95 percent of the total outstanding common capital stock to effect the voluntary delisting.