NEWS

By: Jordeene B. Lagare | Philippine Daily Inquirer | March 26, 2022 5:18AM

A firm led by ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. has taken over Apex Mining Co. Inc. after concluding the tender offer to secure additional shares in the mining company.

Apex Mining informed the local bourse that Prime Strategic Holdings Inc. completed the mandatory tender offer in the listed firm where 4,558 common shares were tendered and crossed last March 21 at P1.30 each or a total of P5,925.40.

The transaction increased Prime Strategic Holdings’ ownership to 54.75 percent from 40.32 percent as it now directly and indirectly owns 3.4 million common shares of Apex Mining.

As a result, Apex Mining will become a subsidiary of the Razon-led company.

Share price

Shares of Apex Mining inched up by 0.61 percent to close at P1.63 each on Friday.

Last December, Prime Strategic Holdings launched a tender offer to acquire 2.213 billion common shares held by the public, which ran from Feb. 14 to March 14.

The Securities Regulation Code states that a mandatory tender offer is triggered if an acquisition would result in the ownership of more than 50 percent of the total outstanding equity securities of a publicly-listed company.

The offer price of P1.30 per share represents a 15.50 percent discount over the six-month volume-weighted average price (VWAP) and an 8.20 percent discount over the three-month VWAP of Apex Mining’s common shares as of Dec. 27, 2021.

Initial foray

In April 2018, Prime Strategic Holdings signed separate deals to purchase the 7.62-percent share of Lakeland Village Holdings Inc. for P73 million and another 6.81-percent interest of Devoncourt Estates Inc. for P51 million in the mining company.

Monte Oro Resources & Energy, Inc., another entity controlled by Razon, owns the other 8.91 percent.

Apex Mining reported a consolidated net loss of P136 million in the first nine months of 2021 against the P991.3 million net income in the same period a year ago.

Consolidated revenues during the January-September period rose by 9 percent to P5 billion from P4.6 billion.

Source: Inquirer.Net