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OIL
company Petron Corp. closed trading on Friday at P6 in a
performance that landed it among the market’s 30 biggest
gainers last week.
With its
showing, Petron, the Philippines’s biggest oil retailer,
ended the week with a huge gain of 17.65 percent on
heavy value turnover of P588.826 million. In previous
week’s Friday, it hit a high of P5.50 and ended at
P5.10, its lowest during the session.
In its
first-quarter report, Petron said it had appropriated
retained earnings of P21.172 billion and unrestricted
retained earnings of P8.175 billion as of March 31,
2008.
Despite
the continued rise in oil prices, Petron said its net
income in the first three months of 2008 plunged 30.955
percent to P658 million from P953 million in same period
last year.
The
performance of Petron did not surprise the Philippine
Stock Exchange (PSE). But Lodestar Investments Holdings
did.
In a
letter, PSE asked Lodestar management its stock’s sudden
surge; it even reached the allowable 50-percent ceiling.
If it soared so high, there must be sellers and buyers
even at a high of P28. Apparently, PSE president Francis
Ed Lim, who is also the chief executive officer, and his
team of market monitors want to know what the sellers
and buyers of Loadstar shares know that they and the
public don’t.
Lim may
be disappointed that no one knows the answer. Even
Loadstar’s insiders did not have the explanation why the
stock suddenly soared.
Manuel
Gonzalez, corporate secretary and corporate information
officer of Lodestar, and the company’s management have
no idea why Lodestar climbed to P9.60 from P6.30 on June
3.
Writing
for the company, Gonzalez told Lim that Lodestar “is not
aware of any material event, information or circumstance
which could have caused the unusual price movement…”
This was a proforma response to the PSE inquiry on why
such and such stocks either climbed or dropped.
On June
3, Lodestar closed at its high of P9.60 after opening
the session at P7.80. The following day, it opened at
P9.60, shot up to a high of P10.25, and closed at its
low of P8.70.
Loadstar’s climb slowed on Thursday, when it opened at
P8.70, hit a high of P9 and closed at P7.90, its
session’s low.
The
company has 37.306 million outstanding shares, of which
the directors and the management own 23.373 million
shares, or 37.348 percent.
In 2007,
the Anggala group paid P87.58 million for 35.033 million
Lodestar shares, or 93.91 percent, from Cyan Management
Corp. and Carcorp Makati Inc.at P2.50 per share. The
buyers’ offer to buy out the small stockholders failed
to attract sellers.
At
P10.25, the Anggala-owned shares had a market value of
P359.088 million two weeks ago, giving the new owners a
paper gain of P271.508 million, or 3.10 times their
acquisition cost in 2007.
Why had
Loadstar hit such trading records?
PSE’s
web site did not show any filings made by Loadstar,
which would have driven up the stock in so short a time.
Instead, the disclosures posted on the web site allotted
for Loadstar showed the financial performance audited by
Punongbayan and Araullo.
The
report noted Loadstar’s net losses over the years—P1.93
million in 2007; P643,677 in 2006; and P2.543 million in
2005. The company had accumulated deficit of P42.21
million.
Romualdo
Murcia III, a P&A partner who signed the audit report
dated March 28, 2008, said Loadstar “is dormant and does
not engage in commercial operation.” He added that the
new owners are pursing plans to make the company
profitable.
Big
losers
Two
holding companies of two of the Philippines’s richest
families were among last week’s biggest losers. In the
PSE’s list, Benpres Holdings Corp. of the Lopezes was
No. 3, while Ayala Corp. (AC) of the Zobels was No. 10.
With its
disappointing performance in the past several weeks,
Benpres had already lost 29.41 percent in four weeks. It
closed on Friday at P1.80 on value turnover of P180.81
million in five sessions, down 18.92 percent from the
previous week.
AC
closed on Friday at P322,50 after hitting a high of P325
and falling to a low of P315. For the week, it had value
turnover of P1.82 billion, not unusual for one of the
market’s most active stocks.
The
stock’s fall followed a disclosure filed with regulators
that Integrated Microelectronics Inc. (IMI), AC unit,
“has booked $32.2 million in realized losses and
provided $10.3 million in mark-to-market losses as of
June 4, 2008.”
These
losses, the filing said, resulted from currency hedging
contracts. “IMI executed a program to hedge its peso
expenses starting in 2007, when the peso was
appreciating,” the filing said. |
