Dormant mining firm fails to hold stockholders meet

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to look into the possible violation of the Corporation Code by dormant mining firm Lodestar Mining Corp. for failing to hold an annual stockholders meeting for nine years now.

In a letter to the SEC, PSE senior vice-president Jose G. Cervantes said Lodestar held its last regular annual stockholders meeting in 1993 and that the most recent meeting it conducted was a special stockholders’ meeting held on Aug. 18, 2000.

PSE asked the SEC if failure by a listed company to hold an annual stockholders’ meeting on a regular basis constitutes a violation of any applicable rule of the Commission.

Under the Corporation Code, regular meetings of stockholders or members shall be held annually on a date fixed in the by-laws.

Whenever, for any cause, there is no person authorized to call a meeting, the SEC, upon petition of a stockholder or member, and on the showing of good cause, may issue an order to the petitioning stockholder or member directing him to call a meeting of the corporation by giving proper notice required by the Code or the by-laws.

Violations of any of the provision of the Corporation Code shall be punished by a fine of at least P1,000 but not more than P10,000.

The PSE is currently reviewing the compliance of Lodestar with the continuing listing requirements of the exchange, the Securities Regulation Code and other applicable rules of the SEC.

The review is part of plans to strike Lodestar, whose shares are currently suspended from trading, off the board.

Apart from Lodestar, the PSE is looking at nine more listed companies for possible delisting of their shares for non-compliance with securities rules.

Lodestar Mining Corp. was incorporated on Jan. 3, 1974 primarily as a mining and natural resources exploration company. It was engaged in the development of several gold and chromite mining claims located in Masbate, Cebu, Negros Occidental and Palawan.

Due to its unsuccessful ventures in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lodestar ceased its exploratory mining operations in October 1991.

The company’s operations never went beyond the exploratory and development stage. – Zinnia dela Peña