THE Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) said it is assessing the reduced offer of state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) to the former’s ownership in the operator of the country’s fixed- income exchange platform.
In its disclosure, PSE said it received a letter from LandBank to buy its shares in Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) for P215 per share or a total of P281.95 million. LandBank’s offer expires by the end of the month.
“The company is studying the offer and will make a recommendation to the company’s board of directors,” the PSE said.
The PSE owns about a fifth of PDS, the owner of Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., which operates the fixed-income trading platform.
LandBank’s offer, however, was lower than its bid of P360 per share, or a total purchase price of P472.11 million, last April as officials said it based its bid on the lower dividend payout of PDS in June to its shareholders that downgraded its valuations.
For most of 2014 and 2015, the PSE was working on the P2.25-billion acquisition for a majority ownership of PDS, or about 66.6 percent.
Things headed south, however, when the PSE has asked the SEC for its approval, hoping to secure its nod in November 2015.
In 2017, PSE re-started its bid to acquire most of PDS, with the intention of owning both the equities and fixed-income exchange platforms. The state-owend bank, chaired by the secretary of finance joined the fray on the same year, also offering to buy a controlling stake in PDS.