SOME minority shareholders of Calata Corp. are demanding the election of a new board of directors that will ensure the company’s long-term success.
Writing on behalf of some small shareholders of Calata, Austrian trader Alfred Reiterer proposed an action plan for the embattled agribusiness firm, which was delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange.
He urged the company to set the date for the annual shareholders’ meeting by the first quarter of 2018 so that a new board may be elected.
“The shareholders have the right to elect a Board of Directors who they believe represents the interest of all shareholders and work professionally for the long term success of the company… Therefore, we recommend to schedule the Annual Stockholders Meeting for a date in the first quarter of 2018 but before March 15th, 2018,” Mr. Reiterer said in the letter.
He added the company must also present its financial statements for full year 2017 during this meeting, to guide shareholders on actions regarding Calata moving forward.
Included in the proposed terms is the payment of cash dividends — worth 20 centavos per share — before the year ends. This is in exchange for Calata’s failure to issue stock certificates following the suspension of trading of its shares, which made it impossible for shareholders to sell their stocks in Calata outside of the PSE.
The trader said the issuance of cash dividends was possible given the company’s retained earnings of P520 million.
Mr. Reiterer further said the board of directors must collect the P9.65-million loan that its President and Chief Executive Joseph H. Calata received, saying this was not made in the firm’s best interest. He noted the 6% annual interest rate for Mr. Calata’s loan was below the 9.87% to 10.47% annual interest rate given by the company.
“This loan was not in the interest of the corporation and caused losses to the corporation because the interest rates charged to Mr. Calata is lower than the interest rate paid by the company. Therefore, the loan must not be renewed by Dec. 31, 2017 and collected together with the unpaid interest,” Mr. Reiterer said.
Mr. Reiterer’s letter was sent in response to Calata’s message to shareholders posted on the company’s Web site last week. This mentioned that Calata is studying the gradual buyback of shares, while also looking at the possibility of allocating a portion of its annual net income to shareholders who would choose to stay with the company.
Calata is now in the process of getting delisted from the PSE after committing a total of 55 violations of disclosure rules from November 2016 to June 2017. Mr. Calata is also facing criminal charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading statements regarding its P65-billion Mactan Leisure City in Mactan, Cebu. — Arra B. Francia
