Quick takes from around the market
Philippine Peso [link] reached an all-time high of P56.99 against the US Dollar. The Peso has fallen over 11% in value since the end of 2021, when it was worth P50.99, and has fallen over 37% in value since 2012, when it was worth P41.56.
MB Quick Take: The BSP says that we’re the “least depreciated” currency since our rate increases, but that’s probably a cold comfort to companies that earn pesos and pay debt in dollars, like DITO CME [DITO 3.64 1.36%], who were already suffering exchange rate woes back when the peso was still P53/P54 per dollar. While the US Dollar is very strong, the thought (at least a few months ago) was that our currency was losing value relative to the dollar because the velocity of our rate increases was not keeping pace with the US. The Duterte-era BSP was preoccupied with maintaining its policy independence from the US, and went out of its way to make it seem like what it was doing was of its own volition. At least for DITO and the other companies in its position, the Marcos-era BSP is signaling that it’s willing to take inspo from the US Fed on future rate increases. I don’t know that that solves the problem, but maybe it won’t make it worse than it has to be?
AREIT [AREIT 38.60 0.26%] [link] will list the additional shares that were issued to its parent, Ayala Land [ALI 29.90 3.10%], as part of the P15.5-B property-for-shares swap conducted in Q2 last year. AREIT purchased the properties from ALI using its own shares, priced at P32/share.
MB Quick Take: The listing of these shares doesn’t change very much for AREIT or its minority shareholders. The shares that were part of this swap were already counted as “outstanding” a long time ago, so this is really just the final step in activating the shares that ALI received in exchange for their properties. The Ayala Family’s ownership of AREIT has been very steady, so I don’t anticipate we’ll see any additional daily volume from drip-selling by ALI or its subsidiaries. Just a formality.
RL Commercial REIT [RCR 6.13 1.92%] [link] reminded us that 6.3 billion common shares held by its parent, Robinsons Land [RLC 19.10 ?0.74%], will exit the 365-day mandatory lock-up placed on the shares when RCR went public nearly a year ago. The lock-up prevented RLC from doing anything with the shares, but starting the morning of September 15th, those shares will now be activated for trading and transfer.
MB Quick Take: Just like with AREIT, I don’t see the Gokongwei Family itching to sell of portions of its interest in its REIT, so despite this being a huge number of shares that could theoretically be sold, I don’t expect any of these shares to actually hit the open market in a way that would provide downward pressure on RCR’s stock price.
Ever-Gotesco [EVER 0.28 5.08%] [link] shareholders approve name change, par value change, and authorized capital stock change. The new name will be “Everwoods Green Resources and Holdings”, the new par value will be 10 centavos per share (down from one peso per share), and the new authorized capital will be P7.5 billion (up from P2.5 billion).
MB Quick Take: It’s not super-clear what EVER is doing as part of this corporate renovation, from mall-operator to... mall-operator and sustainable agri-tourism resort operator with interests in sustainable “bamboo industries”? Whatever the plan is, the board got approval for that huge increase in authorized capital. They can now go out and sell those shares through private placement or some kind of public equity raise like a follow-on offering or stock rights offering.
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Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.
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