House of Investments of the Yuchengco Group said Wednesday its board of directors approved the sale of a 20-percent stake in listed construction subsidiary EEI Corp. to RYM Business Management Corp. for P1.25 billion.
HI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it would sell 207,256 million shares in EEI to RYM at roughly P6 apiece. The sale will reduce HI’s stake in EEI to 35.346 percent from 55.346 percent.
The company said it would use the proceeds from the partial divestment to reduce its debt and increase investments in environmental, social and governance initiatives.
EEI is one the leading construction companies in the country with investments overseas.
The share price of EEI has been going up in the past few days. From its closing price of P2.85 on April 17, its share price jumped to as high as P5.27 Tuesday, a day before the disclosure was made.
The Yuchengco Group of Companies also reported plans to put its insurance and property business under HI.
HI has investments in construction, education and renewable energy businesses.
The group said to implement the restructuring, HI would issue new shares to YGC in exchange for 77.32 percent of MICO Equities Inc., 51 percent of Sun Life Grepa Financial Inc. and 49 percent of Grepa Realty Holdings Inc. for a total of P15.74 billion.
MICO Equities is the holding company of YGC that holds the investments in non-life insurance through Malayan Insurance Co. Inc., while SLGFI is a bancassurance venture between YGC and Sun Life Financial (Philippines).
HI said the acquisition of GRHI would expand its property portfolio, as the latter owns 5,000 square meters of land along Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenue in Makati City and properties in Cebu, Antipolo, Tacloban and Manila.