PNOC-EC to either pursue secondary offer or delist shares

MANILA, Philippines - PNOC Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), the upstream oil, gas and coal unit of state-owned Philippine National Oil Construction Corp., could either pursue a secondary offering or delist its shares from the local bourse.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PNOC-EC said its course of action would depend on the government’s position on whether or not it should sell more shares to comply with the required 10 percent minimum public float for listed companies.

PNOC-EC has until Nov. 30 to meet the requirement.

Another option that PNOC-EC could resort to would be to have its shares stricken off the exchange.

At present, PNOC-EC is 100-percent owned by the government. It was last traded Oct. 6 last year at P24 each share.

The company had a total of 1.52 billion outstanding shares worth P36.5 billion.

The company earlier tapped UBS Investments Philippines Inc., Deutsche Bank, and the group of Citigroup Global Markets, Citicorp Capital Philippines Inc. and ATR Kim Capital Partners Inc. as financial advisors for the planned offering.

The Aquino administration earlier contemplated on selling the 10-percent stake of PNOC-EC in the $4.5-billion Malampaya gas project in Palawan to raise much-needed funds to cut the budget deficit.

The Malampaya project provides the country with at least 2,700 megawatts of clean power with its three power plant customers in Batangas-Sta. Rita, San Lorenzo and Ilijan.

Earlier estimates showed that PNOC-EC would raise between P6 billion and P11 billion from its share in the project.

Last year, PNOC-EC remitted over P1 billion worth of dividends to the National Treasury.