First Pac unit raises stake in Roxas firm

MANILA, Philippines - A subsidiary of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd. has raised its stake in listed sugar miller Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI) through the purchase of treasury shares.

In a disclosure to the local bourse, RHI said it sold 241.78 million treasury shares to First Agri Holdings Corp. at P7 each.

First Pacific also purchased 35 million shares held by RHI chairman Pedro E. Roxas and related parties, bringing the equity investment of the group led by business titan Manuel V. Pangilinan in RHI to 50.9 percent from its previous 34 percent.

Roxas & Co., Inc. (RCI), the investment holding company of the Roxas Group, also hiked its equity investments in RHI by buying 33.1 million shares or P232 million from the market to maintain 30 percent control.

The additional P1.7 billion equity raised RHI’s total equity by 25 percent from P6.93 billion to P8.63 billion.

Roxas said the listed sugar group will use the additional equity for plant upgrades, possible mergers and/or acquisitions, and to diversify its revenue and income base by expanding its ethanol business and developing power co-generation.

“First Pacific and RHI will continue to work for the consolidation of the industry in order for it to survive. We need to immediately bring plant utilization and efficiencies up,” Roxas said.

RHI is a bio-sugar and bio-energy company and is the largest integrated sugar business in the Philippines.

It manages Central Azucarera Don Pedro, Inc. in Nasugbu, Batangas, and Central Azucarera de la Carlota Inc. and Roxol Bioenergy Corp. in La Carlota, Negros Occidental.