Several Barkadans flipped me links to read this Bilyonaryo article about a new-money tycoon that tried (unsuccessfully) to find buyers for his vast-but-troubled empire that was quickly assembled under cover of the Duterte administration’s favor.
“Have you seen this?” “Who is this about?” “Is it Dennis Uy?” I don’t like to speculate too heavily on blind items, but some of the article does point at Dennis Uy. Other pieces I’m not so sure about.
Let’s go over it!
So it’s pretty uncontroversial to attribute, at least in part, Dennis Uy’s rise to his support of President Duterte and the friendly tailwind that Uy has received in recognition of Uy’s campaign donations.
Uy has gone on an unprecedented buying spree since the start of Duterte’s presidency, but it is also true that the velocity of that acquisition frenzy has fizzled out considerably as Duterte’s term winds to a close with no clear successor. So far, so generally accurate.
Now, the article says that the tycoon had a figurative “everything must go” sign out “on all his businesses” to sell them before a new administration takes power in July.
This is where things get tricky. It is absolutely true that Dennis Uy has been trying to sell part or all of his stake in Phoenix Petroleum [PNX 10.84 0.18%] for a long time now, and that he has already liquidated his minority interest in 2Go Group [2GO 7.51 3.10%].
What is less well-known is that, behind the scenes, there are many rumors that Uy’s interests in Enderun Colleges, and several of his restaurant assets (Wendy’s, Conti’s, etc) and even FamilyMart were quietly being offered around to potential buyers.
To date, however, there have been no rumors (that I know of) to suggest that Uy has tried to sell his interests in DITO CME [DITO 4.92 1.40%], the parent company of Dito Telecommunity, or Chelsea [C 1.62 1.22%], his shipping/infrastructure holdco.
The article claims all of these were offered over the Christmas break, which I don’t have any information to confirm (though like we’ve covered, the PNX, education, and restaurant assets have likely been available for far longer), and that buyers rejected the offers due to the seller’s high valuations.
Again, I have no info to confirm/deny that, though the amount of time that PNX has been for sale does suggest that Uy’s valuation could be too high to make a sale (yet).
Finally, the article suggests that the tycoon is ready to “leave on a jet plane to take him to his second home overseas”, which doesn’t strike me as a “Dennis Uy” kind of thing to do.
MB BOTTOM-LINE
I’m not willing to say that the article was written about Dennis Uy, since it seems to suggest some things that either go against what I know about Uy and his companies. Maybe the article is just speaking to gaps in my personal knowledge about Dennis Uy, so for that reason I’m willing to keep an open mind, but I find it hard to believe that he’s been shopping all of his businesses, including DITO and C.
That said, I also find it hard to think of any other local business person that the article could possibly be about. So, is it about Dennis Uy? Maybe. Is it accurate? Maybe. Is it well-written to harvest schadenfreude clicks from the vast number of Dennis Uy doubters? Absolutely.
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