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THE
Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will participate in the
auction to buy back the combined 100,000 PSE shares
owned by defunct brokerage firms Asian Capital Equities
Inc. (ACEI) and Marino Olondriz y CIA.
The
bourse, in a disclosure Monday, said the move was
approved by the board of directors.
The
shares, equally split between the two companies, were
subjected to earlier biddings but were declared failure
in the absence of tenders.
The new
round of bidding will still be conducted by the bourse’s
market regulation division (MRD) but the date has yet to
be set.
Based on
the memorandum previously released by the MRD, the
minimum bid price for the PSE shares will be an amount
not less than the closing price of PSE shares
immediately prior to the public sale. At the end of
yesterday’s trading, the shares of the PSE were valued
P625 each.
Last
May, the PSE successfully bid out the trading rights of
ACEI for P12.3 million to a certain Wee Lee Hiong.
The sale
stemmed from an order by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) to liquidate ACEI’s trading rights to
generate proceeds to be distributed among its clients.
ACEI collapsed in November 2003 and since then, its
operations have been supervised by the exchange as
mandated by the corporate regulator.
ACEI is
a joint venture between East Asia Capital Corp., EA
Securities Ltd. and MUI Philippines Inc.—all
Filipino-owned companies. Aside from being a broker and
dealer, the company was registered with the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas as a nonbank financial intermediary
with non-quasibanking functions.
The
beleaguered firm was headed by Francisco Borromeo, who
is wanted in connection with criminal cases filed
against him for various violations of the Securities
Regulation Code (SRC).
In 2007,
the PSE sought the help of the public to inform the
whereabouts of Borromeo, who was facing arrest warrants
for seven counts of violating securities laws issued by
the Makati City Regional Trial Court. The charges were
connected with the collapse of ACEI.
A joint
audit done in 2003 by the PSE and SEC showed anomalous
deals and accounts, which led to the financial problem
of the brokerage firm. The results of the audit became
the basis for the courts to issue arrest warrants
against Borromeo.
Meanwhile, since there were no bidders for the PSE
shares held by ACEI, the MRD thought of combining it
with the shares owned by Marino Olondriz to make the
sale more appealing to prospective buyers.
Just
like ACEI, Marino Olondriz has been an inactive
brokerage firm under the watch of the PSE. |
