Government to defer offering of additional PNOC-EC shares

MANILA, Philippines - The National Government will continue to defer the offering of additional shares of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said over the weekend.

Almendras said it is not yet time for PNOC-EC to list more shares despite the decision of the Privatization Council not to delist the shares of PNOC-EC at the PSE.

“The privatization council came about a decision to keep PNOC-EC public. It’s not easy to be a publicly listed company. But they also agree that it’s not the time to go to the public right now considering the market slump,” he said.

Almendras said the government would rather pay the fine to be slapped by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) than sell the shares of PNOC-EC at a loss. “We are willing to pay the fine, and we also discussed with the PSE that there are rules of delisting and this is not one of them,” he said.

Almendras said that not offering 10-percent stake of PNOC-EC at a prescribed time of the PSE would not be a ground for delisting of the company’s shares at the stock market.

The PNOC-EC board had decided to seek “guidance” from the economic managers on the listing of additional shares at the country’s bourse.

The company’s follow-on offering will meet the10 percent minimum public float requirement of PSE which should be not later than Nov. 30.

At present, PNOC-EC has listed less than one percent stake at the PSE. PNOC controls 99.79 percent of the company.

The company has proposed budget of P5.25 billion this year. This includes a total capital investment of P4.55 billion, P167.81 million for capital expenditures and P572.70 million for operating expenditures.

The state-run exploration firm is planning to tap a standby credit facility from numerous banks of about P12 to P20 billion to fund portion of its financing requirements.