By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
[ManilaTimes]Hongkong-listed First Pacific Co. Ltd. is eyeing the Social Security System’s (SSS) entire stake in the country’s biggest mining firm, a company executive said.
Manuel Pangilinan, Philex Mining Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) chairman, said First Pacific is looking at the possibility of acquiring the 22-percent shareholdings of the pension fund to gain a majority ownership of the mining firm.
MPIC is the local unit of First Pacific.
Romulo Neri, SSS president, told the Philex chairman that he wants to get the actual valuation of the pension fund’s stake first before selling.
The share sale may happen next year, Pangilinan said.
However, the transaction may not progress unless Philex can locate the “missing” 20 percent to 30 percent shares of the company, he said.
To solve this, Philex can sell additional shares that First Pacific can buy so that the “missing” shares—or those shares with unknown owners—can be wiped out.
Besides the problem of the missing shares, Pangilinan said determining the value of Philex shares is hard due to the speculative nature of its current mining and oil exploration activities.(Read More)
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