Calata permanently stricken off PSE list

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said it did all it could before implementing its decision to delist Calata Corp. from its official registry.

PSE chairman Jose Pardo said the exchange even directed Calata to make a tender offer.

“They were given their time to explain and at the end, we found cause to do what we did. They opted not to do a tender offer,” Pardo said in a briefing on Wednesday night.

The PSE made the clarification after minority shareholders of Calata vented their anger on the exchange for pushing through with the delisting prior to a tender offer.

Aside from delisting Calata, the PSE perpetually banned the firm’s chairman and founder Joseph Calata and corporate secretary Jose Fabella from joining any listed company as director or officer.

Last month, the company said it would do a gradual offer of shares but Monzon said this did not push through.

“If it really wanted to do a tender offer, it would have done so,” he said.

Sought for comment on the PSE’s decision, Calata said it would still be business as usual for the company. He said being delisted means he would just revert to being a private company and join the roster of majority of corporations in the Philippines, which are private.

The PSE has decided to delist Calata from the exchange for 55 violations of disclosure rules. It 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.