Sy Jr acquires 45.5% of UEM Development Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The eldest son and namesake of retail tycoon Henry Sy is acquiring a 45.5 percent stake in publicly-listed investment holding company UEM Development Philippines in line with plans to expand his personal business portfolio to include infrastructure and public utilities.

In a statement issued yesterday, Henry Sy Jr. – currently vice chairman and chief executive officer of SM Development Corp. and vice chairman of SM Investments Corp., said he has “personally obtained a binding commitment to acquire from five shareholder groups a total of 22.5 million common shares of UEM for P65 million or P3 each share.

He said UEM shall serve as vehicle for his planned investments in public utilities and infrastructure.

“We believe that there are several large ticket infrastructure investments in the very near term given the new government’s initiative to partner with private entities. We would like to participate in a number of these privatization and infrastructure projects,” Sy said.

Sy said he would make a tender offer to purchase the remaining shares held by minority shareholders of UEM to comply with the Securities Regulation Code on acquisitions involving 35 percent of a listed company.

The SRC provision on mandatory tender offers states that “any person or group of persons acting in concert who intends to acquire 35 percent or more of equity shares in a public company shall disclose such intention and contemporaneously make a tender offer for the percent sought to all holders of such class.”

The tender offer will start on Monday (Sept. 6) and run until Oct. 5, 2010.

With total outstanding shares of 49.465 million, the total acquisition cost of UEM would amount to P146 million.

UEM was last actively traded on Jan. 28, 2008 at P2.50 per share, records from the Philippine Stock Exchange show.

This purchase would be the latest personal investment to be made by the younger Sy after taking a 30 percent interest in the country’s power transmission highway, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The acquisition was made via One Taipan Holdings Corp., which bought out the group of Monte Oro Resources of businessman Enrique Razon for approximately $350 million.

In June, Sy Jr., who is known as “Big Boy” in the business community, was elected president and chief executive officer of NGCP.

UEM was originally incorporated on June 1, 1970 as a mining corporation named Mankayan Minerals Development Co., Inc.