LISTED Philippine Realty and Holdings Corp. (PhilRealty) is no longer pursuing transactions involving its affiliate Meridian Assurance Corp. (MAC) after the latter shifted business strategies to focus on real estate.
In a disclosure to the exchange on Wednesday, PhilRealty said it had canceled the supposed sale of its 29.99% stake in MAC to Chinook Capital Holdings Corp.
The two companies agreed in 2018 to sell PhilRealty’s shares in MAC to Chinook Capital. The shares amount to 749,999 shares or 29.99% of MAC’s outstanding shares of stock.
PhilRealty said on Wednesday that Chinook Capital has withdrawn this offer, as MAC started investing in real estate and is no longer operating as a non-life insurance company.
“In support of the… strategy being pursued by MAC, (Chinook Capital) which owns 70% of MAC, deemed it a more judicious use of limited resources to allocate and provide funds directly to MAC instead of using up funds to own 100% of MAC,” it said.
In another disclosure, PhilRealty said it was also dropping previous plans to swap shares for properties with MAC.
In 2018, the two companies agreed to exchange 150,396,296 shares in PhilRealty for P81.21-million worth of properties held by MAC.
The properties include three office condominium units and six parking slots in the Tektite Towers and two commercial condominium units and two parking slots at the Icon Plaza.
“MAC… recently started investing in real estate properties to generate capital gains and recurring rental income. Thus, MAC decided to just maintain its investment in the above-cited properties, consistent with the above-mentioned strategy,” it said.
PhilRealty is the listed developer of projects such as The Alexandra, Tektite Towers, The Alexis, La Isla, Casa Miguel, Andrea North and Skyvillas Tower.
In the first quarter, the company’s earnings fell 39% to P11.23 million as its gross revenues dropped 18% to P192.04 million. PhilRealty shares at the stock exchange gained 1.9 centavos or 8.26% to 24.9 centavos each on Wednesday. — Denise A. Valdez
