MANILA, Philippines — The major shareholders of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) will have to appoint a new independent financial advisor (IFA) regarding their proposal to acquire the shares held by minority investors.
“Right now, I believe where we are is that we have to hear from the stock exchange (PSE) about the issue of the matter of IFA that can reassess the pricing, the valuation of the MPIC shares,” MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.
“ I think the bidders have to appoint a new IFA. So, you’re back to square one. The bidders will have to most likely appoint a new IFA,” he said.
Pangilinan said the process would then restart after the IFA has determined a price.
“They will probably give a range of x y and then we will have to submit that again to the PSE and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission),” he added.
In April, the consortium consisting of Metro Pacific Holdings, MIG Holdings, GT Capital Holdings and Mit-Pacific Infrastructure Holdings Corp., made a P49-billion tender offer for the 10.5 billion shares held by the public at P4.63 per share.
Last week, the PSE and the SEC declined to confirm the independence of the MPIC valuation provider, citing “reasons of engagement with other operating departments of the conglomerate or the consortium members.”
Pangilinan explained that the issue was really a matter of whether the IFA was independent enough.
“Because as I understand it, they have done work for the shareholders of MPIC, with First Pacific, with myself, with GT Capital. That’s our understanding. So, they’re looking for an IFA independent financial advisor,” Pangilinan said.
He said the consortium has yet to appoint a new IFA.
“We’ve been given an accredited list. Most of them have done work for us. Because we’re a big group, right?,” Pangilinan said.
“And so there are probably only two that have not done much work or little work or no work for us. So we probably will narrow it down to one of the two,”he said.
In the same interview, Pangilinan said the company hopes to complete the delisting process within the year.
The bidders last week requested MPIC to defer the shareholders’ vote to approve the voluntary delisting of the company from the PSE, which was originally scheduled during its ASM yesterday.
Instead, the bidders requested to hold a special shareholders’ meeting (SSM) for the voting of the delisting at a later date after the report is finalized, which could possibly take a month.
“Deferring the shareholder approval will allow the report to be made available prior to the SSM and thus provide shareholders an opportunity to study the same and better appreciate the basis for the tender offer price and the proposed voluntary delisting,” the consortium said in its notice.
Once the report is finalized, the consortium will then issue a new notice of intent to undertake a tender offer.