Malaysia’s Berjaya Lottery, Berjaya Sports own Berjaya PH

DO companies that have either their common or nonvoting preferred shares listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange ( PSE) allow their public stockholders to participate in their annual stockholders’ meeting? Do these companies go public to allow their public stockholders to use the common shares attributed to them in voting for their choice of directors?

After all, companies or stock corporations get listed to save on taxes that would otherwise go to government coffers, particularly that of the Bureau of Internal Revenue ( BIR). In short, they are not being generous that their savings could even beef up the compensation of their executives.

If officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) would review all these listed companies, they would probably find many of them listing their entire outstanding common shares but not their voting preferred shares. This is understandable because should their listing include voting preferred shares, their public stockholders might enjoy tremendous advantage over the owners of listed businesses.

Rockwell Land Corp. (ROCK) is an example. It has 6,116,782,198 outstanding common shares but

has 6,243,382,344 common shares which

both listed and issued. This could only mean Rockwell has 126,600,146 treasury shares which it plans to sell or reissue.

The company’s public ownership report ( POR) as of June 30, 2019 serves as a

shares. No one knows who will eventually own them.

By the way, Rockwell attributed to its public stockholders the ownership of 796,031,508 common shares, or 13.01 percent of 6,116,762,198 outstanding common shares. A computation resulted in 13.0139 percent.

Will anyone among Rockwell’s 11 directors be able to afford to buy the company’s 126,620,146 treasury shares?

At the stock’s close of P2.34 on Sept. 24, 2019, Rockwell’s treasury shares would cost P296,291,141.64. ROCK common shares opened trading at P2.32; hit a high of P2.34; and dropped to a low of P2.32.

Malaysian-owned unit Berjaya Lottery Managament (HK) Ltd. owns 3,221,238,280 common shares, or 74.20 percent of 4,341,280,855 outstanding common shares in Berjaya Philippines Inc. (BCOR), its local subsidiary. Berjaya Sports Toto (Cayman) Ltd. holds 610,205,150 BP common shares, or 14.06 percent.

As record stockholder, PCD Nominee Corp. holds for Filipinos and non-Filipinos 250,356,385 BCOR common shares, or 5.77 percent, and 2,127,830 BP common shares, or 0.05 percent, respectively,

When computed, the results show Malaysians

control 88.305 percent of Berjaya Philippines thru their total ownership of 3,833,571,260 BCOR common shares.

In a public ownership report (POR), Berjaya Lottery and Berjaya Sports were listed as principal stockholders of Berjaya Philippines. The two stockholders combined for direct ownership of 3,831,443,430 BCOR common shares, or 88.26 percent.

Berjaya Philippines listed 4,427,009,132 as issued shares in its POR as of Aug. 31, 2019 of which 85,728,277 are treasury shares, leaving the company with 4,341,280,855 outstanding common shares.

In a quarterly but not audited financials, Berjaya Philippines reported P6,469,892,815 retained earnings divided into appropriated amount of P1,773,262,552, or 27.408 percent of total, and unappropriated amount of P4,696,630,263, or 72.592 percent.

On Sept. 24, 2019, BCOR common shares opened trading at P2.36, which was their high; fell to a low of P2.32, which was also the stock’s closing price. Number of common shares traded totaled 322,000, or 0.00742 percent of 4,341,280,855 outstanding BCOR common shares. The stock hit a 30-day high of P2.53 and fell to a month’s low of P2.20.

Amended GIS Concrete Aggregates Corp. (CAC) reported 50 million common shares as authorized capital stock (ACS) divided into 40 million common A shares and 10 million common B shares. In a general information sheet (GIS), the company said both common A and B shares have par value of P10 each.

Concrete Aggregates said of its ACS, 27,466,448 common shares were both subscribed and paid- up with 546 and 12 Filipinos owning 22,077,771 common A shares and 5,372,305 common B shares, respectively, for total ownership of 27,450,076 shares. Four foreigners held 16,373 common B shares, or 0.06 percent.

In the same GIS, Concrete Aggregates listed Ortigas and Company, Limited Partnership as holder of 21,007,586 common shares divided into 16,021,974 common A shares and 4,985,612 common B shares. The company’s total holdings were equivalent to 76.48 percent.

PCD Nominee Corp. held for Filipinos 5,452,520 common A and B shares of which 5,066,974 were common A shares. Ana Maria Victoria Ortigas was listed as holder of 492,842 common A shares or 1.79 percent.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila was at No. 4 with 78,486 common A CAC shares, or 0.29 percent.

Also attributed to The Roman Catholic Church — Real Casa de Misericordia — was its ownership of 13,067 CAC common A shares, or 0.05 percent.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila — Hospicio de San Juan de Dios — had 8,317 CAC common A shares, or 0.03 percent.

Among the other stockholders listed in the same GIS were as follows: Celia D. Laurel, 27,767 CAC common A shares, or

19,004 CAC common A shares, or 0.07 percent; Ma. Victoria Ortigas Arando, 18,859 CAC common A shares, or 0.07 percent; Ignacio Ricardo y Ortigas Ortigas, 12,632 CAC common A shares, or 0.05 percent; Maria del Rosario Ortigas, 12,420 CAC common A shares, or 0.05 percent; Azucena C. Sevilla, 12,109 CAC common A shares, or 0.05 percent; Felix Buenviaje, 11,826 CAC common A shares, or 0.04 percent; and Rafael y Ortigas Ortigas, 9,040 CAC common A shares, or 0.03 percent.