CALATA Corp. said it has appealed the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) decision to delist the company.

“The decision of the PSE to delist the company is under appeal,” Calata said in a letter to shareholders posted on its Web site on Wednesday.

Should the PSE reject this appeal, Calata said it will study how to conduct a “gradual” buyback of shares held by the public, even if a tender offer is not mandatory.

Calata had a free float level of 61.53% at the time of its delisting.

“However, please understand that this can only be done gradually so as not to adversely affect the day-to-day operations of CAL. We are currently attempting to formulate a plan on how to go about this, but we intend to start from the smallest shareholders up to the largest,” Calata said.

Earlier, Calata said conducting a tender offer would effectively kill the company, as its retained earnings of P400 million would not be enough to buy back the shares of minority stockholders — estimated to reach P1 billion based on a stock price of P3 apiece.

The agribusiness firm said it will also study how it can allocate a portion of its annual earnings as cash dividends for investors who would choose to stay on board.

The PSE initiated involuntary delisting procedures against Calata last July after counting a total of 55 violations of disclosure rules in the period from November 2016 to June 2017. The PSE also found the company to have violated the blackout rule, where officers of a company are not allowed to trade their company’s shares within a prescribed period.

In response to the delisting measures, Calata announced that it will instead list it shares in the cryptocurrency exchange, where they will be called CalCoins, traded with the likes of other virtual currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum.

Prior to the violations cited for the delisting, Calata was also the subject of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged market manipulation after its initial public offering in 2012. — Arra B. Francia

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