The battle royale among the Lopez cousins shows no signs of simmering down, with potentially more legal cases to be filed, as the Gabby Lopez-led faction seems bent on booting Piki out of Lopez Inc. and perhaps other companies – even raising the Meralco sale “fiasco.” Yet, as we’re seeing, Piki is a formidable opponent.
What could tip the scales though is ports and casino tycoon Enrique Razon, who has unwittingly found himself at the center of the ongoing Lopez teleserye, with Gabby’s camp saying that they were kept in the dark about the First Gen deals with Razon.
Against this backdrop, I wonder if Gabby and cousins will actually question in court the deals with EKR and in effect go against the country’s richest man or will they try to convince EKR to their side and go against Piki?
Who knows what the next move of each side will be.
In a chance chat with Piki last year though, I got the impression that he and EKR go a long way back, having been schoolmates in La Salle Greenhills since grade school. Razon graduated from LSGH grade school in 1974 while Piki graduated from LSGH in 1975. They then went to LSGH high school. Both, in fact, are also DLSAA Lasallian Awardees – Razon in 2019 (Distinguished Lasallian Awardee) and Piki in 2021 (Lasallian Achievement Awardee).
Meantime, the tirades continue.
On Sunday, First Gen Corp. said that under the leadership of its chairman and CEO Federico Lopez, the company’s operations continue to drive consistent and growing profitability, resulting in record earnings last year. “These earnings totaled roughly $2 billion over the past five years, directly benefiting investors.”
It also cleared the air on the contracts with EKR, as questioned by Gabby’s camp.
It said that it enters into contracts and agreements only after conducting transparent and rigorous evaluations, and only upon thorough review and approval by its board of directors.
“First Gen, as a publicly listed company, observes with fidelity the rights of all stockholders to equal access to material information by avoiding its premature and selective disclosure, as mandated by law. This holds true for the transactions with the Prime Infra Group, which all the members of First Gen’s board of directors – including Chairman and CEO Federico Lopez and director Manuel ‘Beaver’ Lopez Jr. – unanimously approved,” First Gen also said.
First Gen likewise defended the deals, saying it “expects its partnership with the Prime Infra Group to help sustain its growth, while reaffirming a declaration made 10 years ago by the Lopez Group to avoid coal investments and pursue First Gen’s transition into a 100-percent renewable energy company in the future.”
Gabby’s questions
In a separate statement, the Gabby-led camp did not mince words.
Why give up control and then buy a minority stake?
They also claimed there was no shareholder approval to buy 40 percent in Prime Hydro and then reduce it to 33 percent after.
The Lopez family majority shareholders want Piki to explain why he sold majority control of First Gen’s gas assets to Prime Infrastructure then bought a 40 percent minority stake in Prime’s hydropower business only to bring it down to 33 percent.
They also asked:
Why did Piki give up control of their gas assets, their crown jewels?
On hydropower, why reduce to 33 percent the 40 percent minority stake, which carried effective veto power? Why not 33 percent plus one share to keep that veto? This is a significant blunder akin to the Meralco sell-out fiasco Piki engineered and masterminded without consulting the family.
And why surrender absolute control to Prime? Who initiated it? What valuation was used? Did the buyer pay a premium to obtain control?
Why did he not tell them in advance about these projects for transparency and corporate governance purposes? These transactions almost equal the equity of First Gen and need shareholder approval. Why put the transaction under “other matters” and then call for an executive session?
Piki, they claimed, “acts like a king without accountability.”
The majority, in a 5-2 board vote late last month, ousted Piki as president and CEO of Lopez Inc., the ultimate mother company of the group, for loss of trust as a result of “questionable transactions worth billions of pesos he entered into.”
However, Piki was able to get a court order, allowing him to thwart the ouster vote.
The order also barred him from being removed from other Lopez companies where Lopez Inc. has shares.
Game of thrones
As I said, the plot thickens every day with seemingly no end in sight.
Both Piki and Gabby are fighting for survival and leadership of the Lopez empire founded and built by their grandfather and fathers before them. Some sources said Gabby’s camp is in war mode because of its position, particularly ABS-CBN’s financial problems.
As Piki earlier said, his cousins ousted him to exact revenge because he refused to pour in P2 billion in reserve funds from Lopez Inc. as fresh capital for the troubled television giant.
I imagined that after the Holy Week break, the cousins might have been enlightened and decided to set aside the squabble, forgive each other and come up with a better compromise.
That didn’t happen, and instead both camps, I heard, even spent the recent holiday strategizing.
What an ugly fight this is turning out to be.
* * *
Email: eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.