DoubleDragon’s share price improves

MANILA, Philippines — Listed DoubleDragon Properties Corp. has seen its shares climb over the past trading days as a result of an aggressive share buy back program implemented recently.

DoubleDragon’s shares rallied by 4.51 percent yesterday to close at P10.42 per share after reaching a high of P10.58 per share and a low of P9.99 per share.

On Feb. 4, the start of the recent buy back, DoubleDragon’s shares closed at P8.06 per share from P7.43 per share on Feb. 3. The shares continued to climb to P8.8 per share on Feb. 7 and to P9.28 per share on Feb. 8.

As of Feb. 9, DoubleDragon has also repurchased 5.1 million shares worth P42.6 million.

The share buyback program was launched in July last year to repurchase P500 million worth of shares. Following the latest buyback, the company still has P457.4 million left for the program.

In an earlier disclosure, DoubleDragon said the share buyback program would run until July 30.

DoubleDragon’s four core pillars of growth are the portfolio of community centers in the provincial city centers; its pioneering hybrid condotel brand Hotel101; office buildings portfolio namely the 42-storey Jollibee Tower in Ortigas CBD, DD Meridian Park complex at the Bay Area, The Skysuites Corporate Tower in QC, and soon Robinsons DoubleDragon Square Building in Bridgetowne Libis; and its CentralHub chain of industrial warehouse complexes.

Listed companies have been buying back shares over the past weeks to unlock the value of their shares that have been battered by the pandemic.

Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., for instance increased its budget for its share buyback to P5 billion from the earlier announced P4 billion in March 2020 (P2 billion) and in February 2021 (another P2 billion).

Last week, RRHI’s board of directors approved to further extend the share buyback program.

From March 2020 to Feb. 10, RRHI had bought back 69.4 million common shares costing P3,9 billion.

“The objectives of the share buyback program are to enhance shareholder value and to manifest confidence in the company’s value and prospects through the repurchase of the common shares of the company and through the return of a portion of the company’s capital to its shareholders,” RRHI said.

RRHI shares rallied by 3.91 percent to close at P57.20 last Friday.

Lucio Co-owned Puregold Price Club, which renewed its buyback program on Dec. 21, bought back a total of 400,000 shares at P36.50 per share or a total of P14.6 million last Thursday.

With the latest transaction, Puregold has so far repurchased P132.8 million worth of shares out of a share buyback program of P5 billion.