METRO PACIFIC Investments Corp. (MPIC) was the most actively traded stock last week after a state pension fund disclosed its acquisition of more shares in the listed tollways and infrastructure conglomerate.
From Sept. 4-8, a total of P9.084 billion worth of 1.747 million MPIC shares were traded, making it the most actively traded stock in the local market last week, data from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) showed.
The Pangilinan-led company closed at P5.16 per share on Friday, surging 6.39% from the previous day. But week on week, it declined by 0.2% from P5.17 a share. Year to date, the stock jumped by 50.9%.
Mark V. Santarina, head of electronics trading at Globalinks Securities and Stocks, Inc., said the company’s tender offer of P5.20 per share caught the attention of market investors.
“However, GSIS entering the scene with an intention to get a board seat in MPIC has led some sellers to sell quickly on the open market instead of waiting for the offer to end,” Mr. Santarina said in a Viber message.
In a letter to MPIC last week, state pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said that it had acquired 2.5 billion shares, bringing its aggregate stake to 3.4 billion or 12% of the company’s total issued and outstanding shares.
The GSIS also said its stake in the company is now considered nonpublic in accordance with the PSE rule on minimum public ownership, which pegs the threshold for such shareholding at 10% or greater of a listed firm’s total issued and outstanding shares.
“I believe this pushes the chances of MPIC’s delisting to push through as GSIS initially was one of the major obstacles in MPIC’s delisting plans as the latter did not opt to tender,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Equity Analyst Manuel Antonio M. Castro said in an e-mail.
“At this point, it is more of playing around the tender. It would be interesting to know how the turnout would be after the end of the tender offer,” he added.
Meanwhile, MPIC extended the tender offer period in order to give ample time to minority shareholders who are willing to participate ahead of MPIC’s delisting plan.
Mr. Castro said the extension lifted the firm’s share price on Friday after slumping the whole week.
Last month, majority shareholders — or the consortium consisting of Metro Pacific Holdings, Inc., GT Capital Holdings, Inc., Mit-Pacific Infrastructure Holdings, Inc., and MIG Holdings, Inc. — agreed to voluntarily delist the company from the stock exchange. The major shareholders increased their tender offer to P5.20 per share, up by 12.3% from the initial P4.63 apiece.
The company needs to acquire 95% of its shares from minority shareholders to comply with PSE rules.
In the April-to-June period, MPIC’s revenues grew by 15.7% year on year to P15.23 billion from P13.16 billion a year ago. Net income attributable to its parent firm rose by 36.6% to P5.22 billion in the second quarter from P13.16 billion last year.
Mr. Santarina expects MPIC’s net income to reach P16.63 billion this year.
“We are expecting strong double-digit growth for MPI especially as its power unit is on track to consistently record strong growth,” Mr. Castro said, referring to the company’s stock symbol.
For the week, Mr. Castro placed MPIC’s support and resistance levels at P5.03 and 5.20, respectively.
Meanwhile, Mr. Santarina said that with the tender offer in play, MPIC’s share might hang around the P5.00 tag, with support at P4.90 and resistance at P5.19.
MPIC is one of the three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific, the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority share in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Mariedel Irish U. Catilogo
