Pepsi loses fizz; IPOed at P3.50, delisting at P1.90
The minority shareholders who subscribed to the initial public offering of Pepsi Philippines in 2008 and stayed on, believing its slogan at that time that “Pepsi is #1,” are about to be hammered the second time.
From its IPO price of P3.50 a share, Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. cratered on listing day to close at P2.85, a 19 percent loss of capital in an overnight.
Now, nearly 12 years later and after nearly tripling its annual revenues, Pepsi will be taken private again, with the controlling Korean group offering only P1.90 a share to delist the company.
Mind you, that P1.90 already represents a hefty premium to the last traded price of P1.40 before the tender offer was announced last week by the Lotte Group.
Ironically, the Lotte Group paid almost double at P3.50/ share in 2010 to buy its way in, acquiring 34.4 percent of the local Pepsi company from the Guoco Group and other shareholders. Three years later, Lotte shelled out an even higher P6.155/share to bring up its stake to 38.8 percent, with the shares apparently acquired from Quaker Global, a subsidiary of the US multinational PepsiCo.
Should it accept the Lotte tender offer, Quaker Global could expect to receive about P1.75 billion for its remaining 25 percent stake, in contrast to the P2 billion it had shelled out in 2000 to acquire 33 percent of the local Pepsi company.
Despite having a rather substantial 32.78 percent public float, Pepsi Philippines is thinly traded. It has fewer than a thousand shareholders, including a number of stockbrokerages.
This early, the two designated independent directors, chairman Rafael Alunan III and vice chairman Oscar Reyes, are apparently already sold on the Lotte party line.
Alunan and Reyes were in Seoul last week, and had themselves photographed smiling and flashing Korean finger hearts at the Lotte HQ.
Heard through the grapevine
Not only is she the emergent kapitana of PAL Holdings and its operating subsidiary Philippine Airlines, there is even documentary proof that Vivienne Tan has been designated next-in-line to her parents Lucio and Carmen Tan.
The unmarried daughter now has 1,000 shares of PAL Holdings to her name, jumping over half-brother and LT Group Holdings president Michael Tan, who only has 450 personal shares.
Her late brother, Bong, also had only 450 shares like Michael.
And so do Vivienne’s parents, contenting themselves to 450 shares each, with the taipan preferring to keep the extended family’s shareholdings within the corporate safe.