11.30.07
Cojuangco’s jackpot
EDUARDO Cojuangco Jr. borrowed P374 million from Cocobank to acquire the Enrique Zobel block in San Miguel Corp. in December 1983.
As of yesterday’s market close, that 20 percent block, which paved the way for Cojuangco to eventually control the region’s largest food, beverage and packaging complex, was already worth about P18.8 billion, representing a 50-fold return in 24 years.
Stated another way, Cojuangco saw his original investment, even during his exile years following the Marcos ouster, double every year.
COJUANGCO
San Miguel was trading at P22 a share when the hush-hush sale was being negotiated; Zobel, for still unknown reasons, did not seek any premium from Cojuangco for his block, according to the book, Boss Danding, by Earl G. Parreno. Read the rest of this entry »
ANC anchor Ricky Carandang had initially kept wondering on air, apparently not sure whether the Antonio Trillanes-Danilo Lim “walk-out” from the Makati Regional Trial Court yesterday morning was premeditated or not. The best clue would have been the unusual presence of the major TV networks and the wire services in the courtroom, as if they had been tipped off.
ANC anchor Ricky Carandang had initially kept wondering on air, apparently not sure whether the Antonio Trillanes-Danilo Lim “walk-out” from the Makati Regional Trial Court yesterday morning was premeditated or not. The best clue would have been the unusual presence of the major TV networks and the wire services in the courtroom, as if they had been tipped off.
Former ABS-CBN chief of news and public affairs Ricardo Puno confirmed that he had met with Eugenio Lopez III’s pointman, Jose Ramon Olives, and that he and Olives talked about Puno starting another talk show on the ANC cable station next year. Puno, however, denied rumors that he was set to take another management position in the network.
Former ABS-CBN chief of news and public affairs Ricardo Puno confirmed that he had met with Eugenio Lopez III’s pointman, Jose Ramon Olives, and that he and Olives talked about Puno starting another talk show on the ANC cable station next year. Puno, however, denied rumors that he was set to take another management position in the network.
11.28.07
Ayala Land’s golden shakeout
AYALA Land may maintain a stiff upper lip about the unfortunate explosion that has kept the money-spinning Glorietta 2 wing shuttered, but a foreign shareholder had already taken the opportunity to quietly divest from the Zobel company right after the October 19 disruption.
A week after the blast, the Singapore office of the Scotland-based Aberdeen Asset Managers sold out its entire 45 million shareholdings to an undisclosed buyer at P17 a share, equivalent to P765 million.
The divestment came less than a month after Aberdeen had scooped up over 6.7 million shares of Ayala Land from the market at P16.625 average price per share.
Yesterday, Ayala Land closed at P15.50.
On the morning before the blast, Aberdeen had managed to dispose 150,000 shares in the stock exchange at P17/share.
An Ayala Land vice president, Dinna Bayangos, had the uncanny sense of market timing when she also disposed that morning 100,000 shares, representing a large chunk of stock options, also at P17 each.
KATIGBAK
But her superior, executive vice president Miriam Katigbak, is even luckier, managing to unload a total of 251,107 shares within two weeks before the explosion at P17.25-P17.50 range. Read the rest of this entry »
Pocket Trans-fer
November 28, 2007
While listed Trans-Asia Oil’s stock rights offering was underway for the Phinma-controlled company to raise over P600 million in working capital, two Trans-Asia directors were doing their private capital raising exercise on the side, as well.
Magdaleno Albarracin Jr. sold 300,000 shares at P1.32 on November 21, after unloading a similar block three weeks before at a toppish P2.08 a share.
His fellow director Roberto Levina, on the other hand, sold 200,000 in two equal tranches last month at P1.76 and P1.44 a share.
Trans-Asia closed yesterday at P1.30. Read the rest of this entry »
Not to be outdone by the Philippine Star which gave away two Toyota Vios, the Philippine Daily Inquirer donated a brand-new Ford Ranger sports utility vehicle as raffle prize during last week’s Advertising Congress in Subic.
According to the grapevine, Inquirer president Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez, unlike Star, did not wish to publicize her fabulous give-away out of sensitivity to the Inquirer union, which received gift checks, rather than outright cash, as part of the rank-and-file’s modest signing bonus.
Not to be outdone by the Philippine Star which gave away two Toyota Vios, the Philippine Daily Inquirer donated a brand-new Ford Ranger sports utility vehicle as raffle prize during last week’s Advertising Congress in Subic.
According to the grapevine, Inquirer president Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez, unlike Star, did not wish to publicize her fabulous give-away out of sensitivity to the Inquirer union, which received gift checks, rather than outright cash, as part of the rank-and-file’s modest signing bonus.
