Philtread gears up for new investment opportunities

Investment holding company Philtread Holdings Corp. will be pulling out over P32 million of its equity in online tutorial company Net Curricula Inc. to improve its liquidity position for other possible business ventures.

Philtread president Renato Leveriza Jr. told the Philippine Stock Exchange that they will be transferring back to ATR-Kim Eng Capital Partners Inc. and Francisco J. Colayco some 19 million shares out of the 43.66 million shares of stock in its 61.35 percent subsidiary Net Curricula, previously purchased in November last year.

"In view of the favorable indicators for the Philippine economy for the first quarter of 2002, attractive investment opportunities may arise in the near future," Leveriza said.

He added the company’s board has deemed it advisable to "improve the liquidity of the corporation to enable it to avail of such investment opportunities and to diversify its total investment portfolio."

Philtread, formerly a tire manufacturing concern, transformed into an investment holding company last year following the entry of new investors led by ATR-Kim Eng. Among the new investments included the purchase of 61.35 percent of Net Curricula for P135.41 million and a 10-percent stake in courier service LBC Global Ltd. for P300 million.

Philtread changed the upper echelon of its ownership as the group led by ATR, Motherwell Inc. and Colayco took a controlling 50 percent stake in the company with the purchase of additional shares for nearly P450 million.

ATR has the largest interest at 39.42 percent; Motherwell, 6.24 percent; and Colayco, 4.34 percent. The stake of Philtread’s single biggest stockholder Philex Mining Corp., in turn, was diluted from 49.49 percent to 24.76 percent while that of tiremaker Bridgestone was reduced from 26.27 percent to 13.14 percent.

ATR is a leading Philippine investment house and securities brokerage firm whose major shareholders include the Gokongwei group, A. Soriano Corp., National Bookstore, Marsman-Drysdale and US-based businesswoman Loida Nicolas-Lewis.

Established in 1993 as the local arm of the Hong Kong-based Peregrine group, the company was acquired in 1998 by local investment bankers Ramon Arnaiz, Manuel Tordesillas and Lorenzo Roxas together with US-based private equity fund Gilbert Global Equity Partners Inc. In the same year, Singapore stockbrokerage firm Kim Eng Holdings took a 43.03 percent stake in the company.