PSE clears Yap, Concepcion group

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) cleared yesterday the Concepcions of the RFM Group, participating brokers as well as the PSE’s own chairman, Felipe Yap, of charges of insider trading and stock price manipulations raised against them by Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco.

PSE president Ramon Garcia said yesterday the Exchange has wrapped up its findings on the RFM/Cosmos share transactions during the period which Syjuco alleged the anomalous dealings took place – from early June up to July 25, 2001, the day prior to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the sale of RFM’s controlling stake in Cosmos to the San Miguel group.

He said the report, which has been forwarded to the Securities and exchange Commission (SEC), showed no findings that violations of such nature had been made – either on the part of the Concepcions (the majority owners of both RFM and Cosmos), the stock brokers involved in the transactions, and Yap.

"We would like to reiterate that there were no findings of violations with respect to the brokers enumerated in the list. The case of RFM and Cosmos had been one of the most disclosed issues in the market even before the (sale) announcement was made," Garcia said.

It will be recalled that early this month, Syjuco accused the Concepcions of insider trading and price manipulation, citing an unusual surge in the volume of transactions on Aug. 28, the bulk of which were dealt with by PCCI Securities and Brokers Corp. and TIR Securities.

Syjuco had earlier sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against the sale of Cosmos to San Miguel and rescind a 1996 agreement wherein he sold his Jaz Cola/RC Cola bottling plants in the Visayas to RFM for P1.168 billion.

The Iloilo solon also dragged the PSE chairman into the fray by accusing him of insider trading facilitated by the family-owned F. Yap Securities on Cosmos shares.

But Garcia said as far as the said transactions were concerned, "Yap has never been a client, those were just in the line of the normal activities of brokers."