We refer to the article under the column Cocktales entitled "Romero unloads stake in shell company to partners", which article was posted in Interaksyon.com last January 9, 2016. Said article stated, in part, as follows:
"New party-list congressman Mikee Romero has sold his shareholdings within a listed shell company, Pacifica, to his own lawyers-partners.
And to get the takeover deal past the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission, a newly-formed Unido Capital Holdings based in Cebu City has in turn appointed former PSE chairman Vivian Yuchengco, through her First Resources Management and Securities Corp., as tender offer agent.
According to regulatory disclosures, Unido Capital is led by lawyer Lowell Yu, who is also identified as chairman of Pacifica and president of iHoldings, a property development services company also based in Cebu...
Unido Capital's corporate secretary, Ian Norman Dato, Yu's former law partner and Arroyo-era undersecretary for political affairs. also happens to be a board director of Pacifica.
...."
The Company and Unido wish to state as follows:
(i) Attys. Lowell Yu and Ian Norman Dato, presumably the "lawyers-partners" referred to in the first paragraph of said article, are neither lawyers, nor partners, of Cong. Mikee Romero. Both Attys. Yu and Dato currently sit as directors of Pacifica, Inc. as nominees of Iholdings, Inc. (and not as nominees of Cong. Romero or his related companies);
(ii) Iholdings is currently an existing shareholder of the Company holding a total of 11,060,000,000 shares or approximately 27.65% thereof. While Iholdings, Attys. Yu and Dato, on one hand, and Cong. Romero, on the other, share the objective of creating a better company for its shareholders, they have separate interests in the Company;
(iii) The intention to appoint First Resources as Tender Offer Agent is not to get the takeover deal past the SEC and PSE, as the article appears to suggest. Pursuant to current rules and market practice, no action for approval is required or secured for the filing of a tender offer report (other than standard clearances from the SEC for publication). The intention to appoint First Resources as Tender Offer Agent is for no reason other than their experience and expertise in tender offer transactions, having successfully participated in a number of other similar transactions; and
(iv) First Resources was not in any way involved in the negotiations between Unido and the group of Cong. Romero for the purchase of PA shares, their intended role being limited to that as Tender Offer Agent.
This clarification is being issued in the interest of full and fair disclosure and apprising the PSE and the investing public on this matter. |