SEC to revoke licenses of 4 inactive firms

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to revoke the licenses of four inactive listed firms from selling securities to the public for violation of securities rules and law.

The four firms are Land Oil Resources Corp., AGP Industrial Corp., Wellex Industries Inc., and Wise Holdings Inc. The SEC, however, refused to name the violations committed by these companies.

Another company in hot water is Lodestar Mining Corp. which has remained inoperational for the past five years.

Lodestar said its corporate franchise should not be revoked as its non-operation is beyond its control. The company explained that it is currently in discussions with a telecommunications firm for a possible merger transaction. No details on such negotiation were, however, given in view of its preliminary stage.

The SEC’s Corporation Finance Department has referred the case to the Company Registration and Monitoring Department for appropriate action considering that it has been inoperational for more than five years now.

A show-cause letter was also sent to Philippine National Construction Corp. for late filing of its annual reports. The company, however, raised the issue of its status as a gvovernment institution being audited by the Commission on Audit which was the cause for the late submission of its audited financial statements.

The SEC has tightened the monitoring of companies’ compliance with its reportorial requirements in a bid to weed out delinquent corporations.

Efforts of the SEC’s Company Registration and Monitoring Department (CRMD) to go after companies that fail to submit general information sheets, financial statements and other reportorial requirements have already yielded positive results as the Commission was able to raise P3.3 million in revenues from the collection of fines last year.

A basic fine of P100,000 is imposed on all SEC-registered corporations that fail to submit annual reports, tender offer reports, proxy statement, and information sheets on time. A P100 penalty is levied by the SEC for every day of delay. Corporations that submit late tender offer reports and annual reports for the second time will be charged a P150,000 fine and for third offense, another P200,000. As for proxy statements and information sheets, the SEC will impose a penalty of P125,000 and P150,000 for second and third offense.

All SEC-registered corporations that fail to submit quarterly reports and current reports on time will be slapped with a P50,000 penalty for the first violation and P75,000 and P100, 000 for the second and third violation.

The Commission will charge a fine of P10,000 to P100,000 for late submission of statement of beneficial ownership.