Pryce Gases exits rehabilitation

MANILA, Philippines - As it exits its 12-year corporate rehabilitation, Pryce Gases Inc. (PGI) is staging a comeback aimed at helping its listed parent firm Pryce Corp. meet bottom and top line targets.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Pryce said the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 149 terminated the corporate rehabilitation proceedings of PGI last Aug. 27.

“The termination of PGI’s rehabilitation proceedings will enable it to return to normal operations and allow it fresh access to credit and capital sources, thereby making it possible to further expand its operations and tap opportunities for business growth, which in turn will put Pryce Corp. in a position of achieving its revenue and profit targets as a consolidated concern,” the listed firm said.

PGI, a 92 percent-owned subsidiary, accounts for about 90 to 95 percent of Pryce’s consolidated revenues. It markets and sells liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), industrial gases and fuels.

The court decision came after PGI, along with its remaining creditors Josefina Multi-Ventures Corp. and Oro Oxygen Corp., sought for termination as the corporate rehab has been successful.

This was affirmed by its initial creditors, International Finance Corp. and Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschapij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V.

In August 2002, PGI’s creditors filed the petition for the rehabilitation plan, which the Makati RTC approved in October 2003.

Prior to the corporate rehab exit, PGI’s robust performance in the first half of 2015, mainly attributed to the brisk volume sales of its LPG product, has driven Pryce’s net income up five-fold.

 The parent firm grew its net income 433 percent to P297.08 million in the January to June period from P55.70 million in the same period in 2014.

Consolidated revenues totaled P2.728 billion, with LPG sales contributing 90.02 percent or P2.46 billion.