The sale involves 529,587 shares or 10.33 percent of Landcos outstanding capital stock, reducing MPCs stake in the company to 51 percent.
The buying parties were AB Holdings Corp., a private investment company, and certain individuals in the management of Landco, a multi-product property development firm.
Among Landcos projects include the luxury residential resorts Peninsula de Punta Fuego and Terrazas de Punta Fuego in Batangas; Leisure Farms in Batangas; Forest Lake Memorial Parks in Iloilo, Zamboanga, Davao, Lucena and Laguna; and Landco Pacific Malls in Cebu and Lucena.
MPC will use the proceeds of the sale to support the ongoing rehabilitation and restructuring program of its shipping unit Negros Navigation Co. (Nenaco) where MPC holds a 97.4-percent stake.
MPC officials said the transaction would be for the best interest of the company and its shareholders given Nenacos positive prospects, as its rehabilitation and restructuring program has been moving on track.
Earlier, Manuel V. Pangilinan, managing director of MPCs parent firm First Pacific Co., said they are still hoping to turn Nenaco around this year and substantially reduce its debts.
In MPCs recent board meeting, the board accepted the resignations of Daniel Lacson and independent director Melito Salazar, who were later replaced by lawyer Amado Santiago III and Sulficio Tagud.
Tagud was formerly Nenacos court-appointed receiver while Santiago leads the legal team advising on Nenacos rehabilitation and restructuring program.
Meanwhile, during Nenacos own board meeting, Salazar has also resigned as Nenaco director and was replaced by Tagud, who, in turn, was named as Nenacos new president and chief executive officer replacing Conrado Carballo who has resigned.
Officials said that as part of Nenacos reorganization, its board of directors also approved to reduce the number of board seats from 13 to nine. As a result, Napoleon Nazareno, Vivian Liban, Jose Manuel Mapa and Emer Nitura tendered their resignations, leaving as member of the board Daniel Lacson as chairman emeritus, Jose Ma. Lim as chairman, Tagud, Pangilinan, Carballo, Edward Go, Julio Ledesma, Augusto Palisoc and Jeremias Cruzabra as members.