PNOC-EC declares cash dividend

PNOC-Exploration Corp., a unit of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co., has declared cash dividends to shareholders amounting to P100 million payable on Jan. 29 next year.

Shareholders of record as of Jan. 3, 2007 are entitled to receive five centavos each share, coming from the company’s 2006 unrestricted retained earnings.

About 99.78 percent of PNOC-EC is owned by its parent firm PNOC. The remaining 0.22 percent is held by public stockholders.

PNOC itself is studying the possibility of going public in the near future. But this would happen only upon completion of the privatization of PNOC’s subsidiaries.

So far, only two of its subsidiaries – PNOC-EC and PNOC-Energy Development Corp. – are listed on the local bourse.

PNOC Development and Management Corp. is in the process of disposing its real estate assets while PNOC Shipping and Transport Corp. is also in the process of being privatized.

PNOC-EDC will also be undergoing privatization, on top of the hugely successful listing of nearly 40 percent of its shares on the local bourse, which raised around P16.7 billion.