RCI: Treasury share sale above board

MANILA, Philippines —  Roxas & Co. Inc. (RCI) has assured its shareholders that the company’s recent treasury share transactions are above board, but declined to identify the buyers of the shares due to the Data Privacy Act.

“The matters related to the disclosure of the shareholders is subject to the Data Privacy Act and does not have to be disclosed. When it comes to disclosing the identities of who our stockholders are, our disclosure obligation under the SRC (Securities Regulation Code) arises only if the five percent threshold is reached. The treasury shares that were referred do not reach this threshold,” RCI chairman Pedro Roxas said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.

The answer was made after a shareholder inquired on the buyers of each of the treasury shares of RCI executed since December 2023, particularly the 66.93 million treasury shares that were sold on Jan.16, 2024 at 44 centavos apiece.

The shareholder also asked for the nature of their relationships with parties related to the directors or officers of RCI.

“We respect the privacy of our counterparties in our transactions. However, we can assure the shareholder that the treasury share transactions are above board. They were properly approved. The terms and conditions were (set at) arms-length,” Roxas said.

In selling the treasury shares, Roxas said the board uses its judgment and discretion to decide who to sell the shares to and at the prices that are agreeable to the board.

“We always use our best judgment and we use data from the market prices for the sale of the treasury shares. We have made all the proper disclosures on all these transactions,” he said.

As for the treasury shares acquired by Stonebridge Corp., a company chaired by Gizela Gonzalez-Montinola, Roxas said they were sold on installment payments while his advances were converted into shares under a special contract approved by the RCI board.