The Manila Times

Metro Pacific shelves delisting vote

METRO Pacific Investments Corp. will defer a delisting vote following a request by bidders seeking to take the company private.

In a disclosure on Thursday, Metro Pacific said that Metro Pacific Holdings Inc., GT Capital Holdings Inc., MitPacific Infrastructure Holding Corp. and MIG Holdings Inc. had requested next week’s scheduled shareholder vote be deferred as a special valuation report was not yet available.

Metro Pacific earlier this week extended a proxy submission deadline to June 2 from May 31, and said that the valuation report would be made available before a June 6 annual stockholders’ meeting (ASM).

GT Capital, in a separate disclosure, said that “unfortunately, the report has not been finalized, and the consortium will not be able to provide a copy of the same to the company before the ASM.”

“In view thereof, the bidders requested the company to defer the shareholders’ vote to approve the vol

untary delisting of the Company from the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange),” the firm added.

“They will request for the holding of a special stockholders’ meeting at a later date after the report is finalized.”

Metro Pacific said that it had accepted the consortium’s request to defer the delisting vote.

Other matters will still be discussed during next week’s stockholders’ meeting, and the firm said that it would inform shareholders “of any material developments on this particular agenda item [delisting] as necessary.”

Metro Pacific announced in April that major shareholders Metro Pacific Holdings and GT Capital, along with Mit-Pacific and MIG Holdings — a firm controlled by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel Pangilinan — had made a P49-billion offer to buy out minority shareholders.

Analysts, however, have said that the offer price of P4.63 per share — a 22-percent premium of its volume weighted average for the past year — was too low. On Monday, Metro Pacific said that shareholders who approve a delisting would not be obligated to sell their shares.

The company’s shares closed 0.46 percent or 2 centavos higher on Thursday to P4.37 amid a 0.72-percent drop for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.

GT Capital, meanwhile, saw its share price fall by 1.16 percent, or P6, to P510.

Business Times

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2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281827173150533

The Manila Times