Vantage Equities [V 0.72 1.4%; 10% avgVol] [link] reported a Q1 net income of P417 million, up 359% from its Q1/22 net income of P91 million. V said that it was able to time the fixed-income market well, and used the PSE’s pump into the 6,800 level to “unload some of its holdings”. V’s trading gains were up 373% to P369 million.
MB Quick Take: While V is still relatively tight-lipped about its trading strategy and the tactics that it uses to grind out gains, at least we get the impression here that V isn’t just another boat that rises only when the other boats are rising, like CTS Global [CTS 0.83 1.2%; 98% avgVol] which is basically sitting on the sidelines in government bonds waiting for easier conditions. V is demonstrating that it’s possible for a trading firm to grind those gains in a sideways market.
House of Investments [HI 4.51 3.2%; 30% avgVol] [link] sold a 14.35% stake in its portfolio company construction firm, EEI [EEI 5.86 0.7%; 23% avgVol], to a company called Industry Holdings and Development Corp (IHD) which is owned by Francis Chua.
MB Quick Take: There’s always a public reason and a private reason for doing a thing, and I just wonder what the private reason is here for these moves by HI to dump its holdings in EEI. As it says, it’s retaining EEI as a “portfolio company”, but it seems quite interested to allocate its resources away from EEI. It says it’s looking to reduce its exposure to the construction industry, but that sounds like a public reason to me that was made to sound viable/plausible around some less marketable private reason. I’ve been receiving a few interesting takes from readers about what might be the driving force behind this reallocation, but nothing that I have independent corroboration on yet!
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