Holcim Philippines eyes delisting from stock exchange

MANILA, Philippines (Corrected, 5:09 p.m.) — Holcim Philippines, Inc. is looking to delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange after Holderfin B.V., a major shareholder in the cement maker, bought out shares owned by Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co.

The move was announced in a disclosure sent to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, which bared details surrounding the transactions.

“Holderfin informed the Company that if the Company will be unable to issue additional shares to the public sufficient to raise its public float to the required level, Holderfin is prepared to make a tender offer for all outstanding common shares of the Company held by the public with the aim of subsequently conducting a voluntary delisting of the Company’s common shares from the Main Board of the PSE,” the statement read.

Holcim said they were evaluating the feasibility of voluntarily delisting from the PSE.

Citing market conditions, Holcim indicated in a separate disclosure that they will be unable to raise their public float “within a reasonable period.” Companies such as Ovialand postponed their market debut earlier in June.

Holcim said they will begin voluntary tender offer proceedings to facilitate delisting.

Holderfin bought 594,952,725 common shares owned by Sumitomo in a regular block sale on Thursday. These shares represented 9.22% of the cement maker’s outstanding capital stock.

Holderfin’s acquisition pushed shares in the cement maker, boosting the major shareholder’s equity to 27.33% from 18.11% of Holcim’s outstanding capital stock.

Holcim explained that since Holderfin is a major shareholder and the shares held by Sumitomo were shares held by the public, the cement maker’s public float will retreat to 5.05% of its outstanding common shares.

Holcim’s public ownership was pegged at 14.27% of capital stock as of March 31.

Trading of shares in Holcim Philippines was suspended by the local bourse owing to these developments. — Ramon Royandoyan

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article erroneously reported that Sumitomo bought the shares of Holderfin in Holcim Philippines when, in fact, it's the other way around. This has been corrected and we apologize for the error.