Joseph Calata: Genius or fool?

YOU can’t miss Joseph Calata even in a crowded room. He has a big, movie star smile and striking looks – deep-set, piercing eyes, thick eyebrows, sharp nose, vampire lips and smooth skin.

And his looks are made more striking by his pompous ways. His hair is heavily gelled in a spiky and pompadour sort of way and he walks with an air of confidence that one may only see in someone who became a billionaire at 31 years old.

It’s quite a success story, this guy. Born and raised in Bulacan – he speaks eloquent Tagalog as Bulakenyos do and prefers to speak the language instead of English as billionaires usually do – he took over the family’s mom and pop poultry feed retail store and turned it into a giant.

He listed Calata Corp. at the stock exchange in 2012 and it gained total market value of P4.3 billion, making him the youngest billionaire of his time.

His secret to success? He is good in math, is computer savvy and is also a finance guy. He first took up BS Math in De La Salle University but later on shifted to Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in management of financial institutions.

More than that, he is armed with high aspirations and driven by ambition.

And if you look at the way he dresses, you can’t help but interpret it as one who wants to have it all. He is always in his trademark suit – complete with a vest, a tie, a scarf that stands out and an equally colourful pocket square, all at the same time. Calcoins anyone?

He is, indeed, the proverbial ambitious young man. Now, whether it’s this ambition or just plain ignorance that is causing him his troubles now, only Joseph Calata knows for sure.

What is clear is that the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is set to delist his company for violating disclosure requirements.

The PSE counted 55 violations of disclosure rules from Oct. 6, 2016 to June 20, 2017 when he started selling his shares.

It also did not provide updates on previous disclosures on material information that may affect investor decision.

The PSE first suspended the trading of Calata shares prior to initiating delisting procedures.

In its findings, the PSE also found Calata to have violated the ‘blackout rule’ which prohibits directors and principal officers who have obtained material nonpublic information to trade their company’s shares within a prescribed period.

The PSE’s blackout rule is meant to provide a fair market environment to the investing public by disallowing the possible trading of company insiders using non-public information that they may have access to by virtue of their position in the company.

Delisting has stiff consequences. For one, the company cannot relist within five years and its officers and board members cannot be part of any other listed company within the same period.

Calata, my sources tell me, is moving heaven and earth to avoid delisting and is still appealing the matter to the gods of Tower 1. He proposed an alternative, which is crypto currency. Under his plan, the company will issue digital tokens called Calcoins to every shareholder of Calata.

Shareholders will then open an account on the crypto currency exchange where Calcoins are tradable. They can start trading Calcoins and anyone in any part of the world can buy the currency.

“Give it six months, your shares in Calata can be traded as Calcoins. We will not just create a digital token that we can trade in the crypto currency exchange, it can even be used to buy our everyday needs. We will be the first crypto currency in the Philippines that can be used for our day-to-day purchases. We will lead it and we will do it,” he said.

Honestly, I think it’s a plausible solution. If I’m a shareholder, and I want to get my money back, it can be a practical alternative. It’s not guaranteed, but like in the stock market, all I have to do is to wait for the price I want.

I sat down with the people behind ConsenSys, a blockchain technology and they explained to me how crypto currency works. It is not fraud. It’s real, it works and it’s being used all over the world, even in the Philippines.

If Calata can lay the groundwork for it to happen – including getting shareholders’ approval for it – then it may just be the way out for the company’s investors. The big but But it’s not to say Joseph Calata should go unpunished. If he is indeed found guilty, regulators must slap him the necessary and appropriate legal actions. There is a pending petition on Change.org calling for his ouster.

I’ve been trying to get in touch with him to get his side but he wouldn’t return my calls.

He has blamed the Filipino crab mentality for his troubles, saying that some people are out to bring him down.

The company’s mistakes, he added, are all honest mistakes that listed firms like Calata and young entrepreneurs like him can unwittingly commit.

Is Joseph Calata – the dapper, ambitious and self-made billionaire – a genius or a fool? Only time will tell.

But in these interesting times, we should always remember the old Chinese proverb – a genius always presents himself as a fool.

Iris Gonzales’s e-mail address is eyesgonzales@gmail.com.