First Philippine HoldingsThe board of directors of First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH) approved on Dec. 1, 2020 the conduct of a tender offer to acquire a minimum of 20% and up to a maximum of 45.56% of the total issued and outstanding common shares of Lopez Holdings Corporation (LPZ) from all the shareholders of LPZ excluding the shares owned by its ultimate parent entity Lopez Inc., which has agreed not to tender its common shares, at a price of P3.85 per common share.

“If successful, the tender offer will result in the delisting of Lopez Holdings as part of the Lopez Group’s effort to consolidate the ownership of Lopez Holdings and to streamline the Lopez Group’s corporate structure by leaving only one Lopezowned holding company, FPH, listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. Given this time of uncertainty, the tender offer will give LPZ’s minority shareholders the immediate opportunity to liquidate their investment at a significant premium to current market price,” FPH president Giles Puno said.

FPH’s tender offer price of P3.85 represents a 25% premium over LPZ’s closing share price of P3.08 on Nov. 27, 2020, and a 41%, 43% and 36% premium over LPZ’s 3-month, 6- month and 12-month volume weighted average price of P2.74, P2.69 and P2.82, respectively. FPH’s tender offer price also represents a 22% premium over LPZ’s 6-month closing high as of Nov. 27, 2020 of P3.15.

According to the tender offer report filed by FPH with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 4, the tender offer period will be from Jan. 22, 2021 up to Feb. 19, 2021. It is subject to a minimum of 908,459,782 common shares representing 20% of LPZ’s outstanding common shares and a maximum of 2,069,273,361 common shares representing 45.56% of LPZ’s outstanding common shares being tendered and eligible for acceptance by FPH through the tender offer. (Story/Photos by: Joel Gaborni)