MANILA, Philippines — SM Investments Corp. would spend over P5 billion to voluntarily delist 2GO Group Inc. through a tender offer, which is set to start in mid-March.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SM Investments said it would pay investors P14.64 for each of the 378.82 million common shares in 2GO that they hold.
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At that price, SM would spend P5.5 billion to complete the tender offer, the size of which accounts for a 15.38% stake in 2GO and equivalent to the listed shipper’s entire public float.
2GO on Monday asked the PSE to suspend the trading of its shares for the entire day to give investors time to digest the news. Meanwhile, shares in SM Investments were trading up 0.22% as of 1:09 p.m.
Based on the terms of the transaction, the tender offer will start on March 15 and end on April 28. SM Investments will start paying investors for the tendered 2GO shares from May 2 to 10.
SM took over 2GO after Dennis Uy, the previous owner who is an ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, sold his controlling stake in the company for P6.6 billion in 2021 to shield his empire's balance sheet from bigger losses at the height of the pandemic.
Last month, 2GO reported it netted P312 million in 2022, in what the company described as a “turnaround profit” after years of net losses. — Ramon Royandoyan