PHA to acquire 33% of SquidPay

MANILA, Philippines — Premiere Horizon Alliance Corp. (PHA), a listed investment holding company, has signed an agreement to acquire 33 percent of SquidPay Technology Inc. (SPT), a fintech company.

In a disclosure yesterday, PHA said that its board, led by chairman Augusto Cosio, approved the acquisition of 33 percent of SquidPay for P561 million.

“The acquisition is in line with PHA’s direction of investing in the fintech space,” PHA said.

This is equivalent to 264 million existing and outstanding shares of SquidPay owned by the group led by Marvin dela Cruz.

The acquisition will give SquidPay a P1.7 billion pre-money equity value, which is simply the amount that an investor and the company agree to deem the company to be worth immediately prior to the investor’s investment, for the purpose of determining how much the investor will pay per share for the stock it is purchasing.

The price is within the range of values in the valuation report prepared by KPMG, which values SquidPay up to P3 billion.

PHA will be entitled to three out of the seven board of directors’ seats in SquidPay, the company also disclosed.

PHA and  dela Cruz shall also jointly nominate the chairman of the board of SquidPay, as well as the executive committee chairman, president, CEO, CFO, and treasurer.

The funding will come from the P625 million subscription payable by the group led by dela Cruz, in accordance with the Memorandum of Agreement with PHA dated Oct. 29, 2020.

In its disclosure yesterday, PHA said the board also accepted the resignation of Elisa May Arboleda-Cuevas as independent director of PHA and approved the designation of Felipe Judan as the chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee to replace Cuevas.

PHA’s board likewise authorized, subject to stockholders’ approval, the increase of the authorized capital stock from P1.5 billion – divided into six billion common shares with a par value of P0.25 per share, to up to  P2.5 billion -- divided into 10 billion common shares with a par value of P0.25 per share.

In October last year, PHA said SquidPay was acquiring 55 percent of PHA, paving the way for the backdoor listing of the fintech company, which is engaged in providing payments solutions.