LISTED Chemical Industries of the Philippines, Inc. (CIP) has sold a majority of its stake to a group that includes a company owned by the Unioil Group, Inc.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Tuesday, CIP said it had been notified by the group of buyers that they had “crossed the sale of the company’s 5,865,500 common shares through the facilities of the Philippine Stock Exchange.”

The buyers are Quantumlink Realty Corp., Citiworld Properties & Development Corp., Exquadra, Inc. and Lavish Sources Ltd. Quantumlink is 57% owned by the Unioil Group, Citiworld and Exquadria are Filipino firms in the business of real estate and land acquisition, and Lavish Sources is from the British Virgin Islands with local presence through a storage facility.

The shares in CIP were bought from Philippine Indochem Corp., Chemholdings Corp., A2K Holdings Corp., Chemphil Employees Livelihood Foundation, Inc. and businessman Antonio M. Garcia through a share purchase agreement with the group of buyers last year.

The buyers were supposed to buy 5,866,001 common shares representing a 56.97% stake in CIP, but the stock certificates of Mr. Garcia amounting to 501 shares were “lost and therefore could not be crossed at the same time.”

“The lost stock certificate is the subject of an application for replacement and will be crossed at a later date,” CIP’s stock exchange disclosure on Tuesday said.

On top of the shares the group bought through the share purchase agreement, the buyers also tendered 2,171,617 shares in CIP last month at an offer price of P177.63. This is equivalent to a transaction price of P385.74 million.

The group now owns 8,037,117 shares representing 78.04% of the total issued and outstanding capital stock of CIP. Once the 501 shares of Mr. Garcia are successfully sold, the group will own 8,037,618 common shares in CIP equivalent to approximately 78.06% of its total outstanding capital stock. This will reduce CIP’s minimum public ownership to 21.94%.

In the tender offer conditions disclosed by CIP in December, the buyers said that they were interested in the “possibility of infusing assets and funding further business projects for CIP,” among which are building a new blending plant for lubricants and constructing warehouses. It is also considering doing a subsequent public offering to raise funds.

CIP is the parent company of CAWC, Inc., Chemphil Manufacturing Corp. and Kemwater Phil. Corp. and is in the business of manufacturing and selling industrial chemicals and personal care products. — Denise A. Valdez

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