SPNEC 'working' on private placement to lift suspension
In a BusinessMirror story, SP New Energy [SPNEC suspended] [link] owner, Leandro Leviste, is quoted as saying that the company was surprised by the speed of the SEC’s approval of its authorized stock (ACS) increase, and that this “inadvertently” led to a trading suspension that has been frustrating SPNEC minority shareholders for 39 days (and counting).
Mr. Leviste said that he and the SPNEC team “just need to finalize the arrangements” with “identified buyers” for approximately 2.12 billion SPNEC shares, and then execute those agreements “with the corresponding documentation” to push SPNEC’s public float back above the PSE’s 20% minimum threshold.
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There are thousands of shareholders trapped in this stock, and this story probably does nothing to ease their discomfort.
SPNEC weirdly pivoted its planned asset-for-share swap with its parent company a few months ago, selling a huge stake to Metro Pacific [MPI 4.92 0.8%; 117% avgVol] to help facilitate the “efficient implementation of the ACS Incease”, and then was caught flat-footed when the SEC efficiently approved the ACS increase.
The size of the sale needed is actually huge, so it’s not surprising that it is taking some time for SPNEC to complete. Will there be just one buyer of the full 2.12 billion block, or will it be chopped up into smaller pieces? If they’re taking a multiple-buyer approach, I’m a little surprised that we haven’t heard anything yet about a smaller completed sale. If they’re going after one big buyer, then it makes some sense that it’s taken this long, but it still reflects somewhat poorly on the approach of management to have been caught so unprepared.
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Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.
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