MANILA, Philippines - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved yesterday the application of PhilWeb Corp., the Philippines’ first and largest listed Internet company, to increase the par value of its shares from one centavo to one peso per share. This move paves the way for investment in PhilWeb by large institutional investors, which traditionally refrain from investing in “penny stocks”.
“With this small but significant change, PhilWeb has arrived as one of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)’s new performers. We believe large institutional investors are interested in the company, seeing as it has posted very strong growth in the last three years,” said Dennis O. Valdes, PhilWeb president.
The par change will not affect PhilWeb’s authorized capital stock of P2.6 billion. Instead, the number of shares will decrease by a factor of 100 from 260 billion to 2.6 billion. Thus, a shareholder who used to own 1,000 shares with a par value of P0.01, will soon be holding 10 shares with a par value of P1. The PSE has announced that the par change will be reflected in their trading system on Sept. 22, the first trading day next week.
Existing share certificates with the old par value will be replaced as these certificates are traded or transacted, via settlements of over-the-counter (OTC) trades, upliftment requests, direct transfer requests and similar situations.
Shareholders who wish to replace their existing certificates without trading them, may surrender these certificates to PhilWeb’s stock transfer agent, RCBC Stock Transfer Dept., G/f, West Wing, GPL Bldg., 221 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Makati City 1203, tel. 892 7566, or email fttimonera@rcbc.com.
PhilWeb is the dominant player in the local Internet gaming sector, As a technology enabler of Pagcor, it operates the Pagcor e-Games café system, and Internet Sports Betting Stations (ISBS). PhilWeb is also the driving force behind the popular Premyo Sa Resibo program of the BIR.