Ever Gotesco seeks lifting of suspension on securities sale

Ever Gotesco Resources & Holdings Inc. has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to lift the order suspending its permit to sell securities to the public after complying with the requirements of the Securities Regulation Code and settling the assessed penalties.

The SEC suspended Ever’s registration of securities due to the firm’s failure to appoint a compliance officer and two independent directors and to set up an independent audit committee.

In its motion filed with the SEC, Ever said it had already complied with all the requirements of the SRC and paid the assessed fine amounting to P175,000.

"While the petitioner admits with regret its failure to timely comply with the provision of the SRC and its implementing rules and regulation, it was never the intention of the petitioner to disregard much less ignore the rules of this Commission," Ever said.

Ever, the developer of the Ever Gotesco malls, has committed to comply religiously with the SRC provisions and the SEC’s rules and regulations relative to all its reportorial and other requirements.

The SEC’s Corporation Finance Department has recommended to the Commission en banc the lifting of the suspension order.

The company posted a net income of P9.78 million in the first quarter this year, up by 47.7 percent from the P6.62 million level the previous year. The significant improvement was primarily due to lower costs as it reduced its workforce.

Total revenues, on the other hand, fell to P82.45 million as a result of the deferment in rental rates increase and in some cases, reduction in rental rates of major and anchor tenants.

These actions were made by the company to retain tenant base in view of the continuing effect of the economic crisis which affected the tenants’ ability to sustain pre-crises rental rates.

Lower occupancy rate on rentable spaces and the closure of seven cinemas also pulled down revenues,the company said.

Net operating costs and expenses, however, decreased 7.11 percent to P53.83 million. Interest expense, on the other hand, slightly increased to P18.84 million compared with P18.68 million last year.

These include the land and mall in Pasig City which secured certain loans from a syndicate of lender banks led by Philippine National Bank.

As of end-March this year, the company had liabilities of P1.73 billion as against P1.7 billion a year ago. Principal loan obligation amounted to P665 million.

The Ever-Gotesco malls were established by the Go family to pursue their mall operations through two subsidiaries, Ever Commonwealth Center and Ever Gotesco Ortigas Complex.