Quick takes from around the market

1. Holcim Philippines [HLCM suspended] [link] wants to make its voluntary delisting from the PSE effective on Nov. 27, 2023. HLCM said that the ownership group was able to acquire an additional 3.62% of HLCM’s public float through the first part of its weird two-part tender offer, which is more than the 0.05% that it needed to get in order to satisfy the PSE’s voluntary delisting rules.

MB quick take: The date needs regulatory approval before it’s officially “a thing”, but I think the report underlines the weirdness of the SEC’s order for HCLM to extend its tender offer. HLCM likely already satisfied the PSE’s delisting rules before the order, and the slight delay didn’t ease the bureaucratic burden imposed on minority shareholders by the BIR and SEC’s shared inability to streamline this uncommon (but not unforeseeable) circumstance.

2. Metro Pacific [MPI suspended] [link] was suspended by the PSE yesterday after the tender offer block sale was processed to transfer the tendered shares to the MPI Consortium. As of this writing, the PSE’s website still listed MPI’s free float as 21.56%, but the suspension was due to this free float falling down to below 3%.

MB quick take: Nothing surprising here, just noting MPI’s movement through the delisting milestones as they happen. The next one will be the payment of shareholders who tendered on September 28, and the next milestone after that will be the regulatory approval of the MPI Consortium’s preferred delisting date.

3. BPI [BPI 110.50, up 2.8%; 122% avgVol] [link] announced plans to offer and issue ?5 billion (plus “option to upside”) peso fixed-rate bonds with a 1.5-year term, due in 2025. This will be BPI’s second tranche of bonds issued from its P100 billion shelf