Stonebridge Corp., a company chaired by the wife of Far Eastern University chairman emeritus Aurelio Montinola III, acquired a 9-percent stake in Roxas and Company Inc. (RCI), one of the top-performing stocks in the market.
RCI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Stonebridge purchased 250 million common shares in the company. The 250 million common shares form part of the 299.482 million RCI treasury shares that the company sold on May 3, 2024 at P2 apiece.
The acquisition price is a steep 38.2-percent discount to RCI’s closing price on Friday of P3.24. Shares of RLI recently hit a 52-week high of P4.
The acquisition will make Stonebridge the third largest shareholder of RCI, after the founding Roxas-Elizalde families and young businessman Leandro Leviste, who also increased his stake from 7.55 percent to 10 percent.
Montinola is an independent director of RCI.
Stonebridge plans to seek the election of a nominee to the RCI board following the acquisition of the stake in the company.
The transaction will enable Stonebridge to expand its presence in the real estate sector.
RCI has investments in real estate through wholly-owned subsidiary Roxaco Land Corp. (RLC) and sugar business through Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI) with sugar and ethanol manufacturing subsidiaries.
RCI said it secured ownership rights over a huge track of land in Batangas in February, after it ended a four-decade long land dispute with agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) over its three haciendas – Palico, Banilad and Calaway.
RCI said it is now drafting and finalizing its plans on how to maximize the value of the properties. Among its options are residential, commercial, industrial and tourism projects.
The board of RCI approved the continuous sale of treasury shares in 2014 as a fund-raising initiative for working-capital and expansion projects.
The company is programming this year to meet its business plan commitments by raising funds through the sale of treasury shares to repay debt.
Based on the company’s latest financial statements, it has P1.5 billion of current liabilities in excess of current assets.