Quick Takes: Phoenix responds to news on frozen bank accounts and 3 more updates

Phoenix Petroleum [PNX 9.00 4.15%] [link] responded to the news of its bank accounts being frozen to pay a hefty outstanding debt to the LT Group [LTG 8.26 1.08%] by saying that it has yet to “officially receive” copies of the complaint, summons as well as the writ of preliminary attachment that were issued by the court. PNX did say that it is “determined” to protect its rights in the “appropriate venue”.

MB Quick Take: While PNX’s response was pretty standard in terms of what a company might say in comment to a legal issue, it’s a little odd for it to be pleading “official” ignorance of everything at the stage where the court has ordered PNX’s accounts to be frozen. Normally, the “waiting on official copies” stuff is what you see at the outset of a legal proceeding. PNX put out a second statement on the matter to say that it’s never even heard of this case outside of social media, so we’re going to have to wait and see what’s going on.
 

Basic Energy [BSC 0.29 4.84%] [link] board votes to use P6 million to hire a third party expert to help it evaluate and rank its seven potential wind power locations in the Philippines.

MB Quick Take: While “location” is important when talking about both solar and wind power, wind is by far the more complicated of the two. For starters, the “wind inventory” of various parts of the country is not as widely available as the solar inventory. This makes sense because the availability of light and sun is critical to certain agricultural endeavors, and the government (and industry) has a vested interest in the study and evaluation of the solar potential of various parts of the country. Wind, not so much. To make matters worse, what might feel very windy to us at ground level might not be all that “windy” up 50 to 100 meters where the turbines are spinning (or not spinning), so it’s risky to rely on anecdotal research from non-technical observations. Worse still is the need for BSC to gain this understanding of the wind’s potential across all seasons of the year, for each of the seven regions. Considering the variables, and the sad cost of getting it wrong, it’s a good sign that BSC is going with outside experts on this initiative.
 

Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corporation [PTT suspended]  [link] tried to have its 2022 annual stockholders meeting, but failed due to lack of quorum. As noted by PTT, the company’s incumbent directors will continue to serve in their capacity until a vote can be held at some later time when a new meeting can be scheduled, and enough of the company’s shareholders actually show up to hold a vote. 

MB Quick Take: PTT really stretches the imagination of what it means to be “on” the PSE. The stock hasn’t traded in almost 20 years, and yet it still abides by the disclosure rules, dutifully notifying the market of all the comings and goings of its company, and keeping us up-to-date as to the latest quarterly net loss. How is any group served by this company remaining in this state for so long? Certainly not the minority shareholders. I don’t care too much about the owners of the company, as they have direct control over what they’re doing and have many more options on how to monetize their interests. The minority holders have far fewer options.
 

DoubleDragon [DD 6.48 0.15%] [link] subsidiary, Hotel 101, completes the acquisition of a 9,000 sqm property in Niseko, Japan. DD intends for the site to be home to its first international hotel, which DD hopes will be the first of many for this aspiring “global Filipino brand”. DD expects the project to generate P8.1 billion in condotel pre-selling sales revenue, though it did not put a time-frame on the recognition of that revenue.

MB Quick Take: DD has big goals, and its goal for Hotel 101 is to be something of a “home away from home” for traveling Filipinos. In the statement to shareholders, Injap Sia wrote that, in a few years, he hopes to see “a Hotel101 in every urban city and key destination in the Philippines and in other countries overseas.” That’s ambitious, but do-able largely because the wording of the goal gives DD a lot of wiggle room!