SMC Interested In Acquiring 40% Of PAL??

[seven13]

SMC to buy 40% of PAL?
SPY BITS By Babe Romualdez (The Philippine Star)

We have been hearing a lot of Spy Bits chatter that San Miguel Corp.’s Ramon Ang (or RSA) is currently in secret talks for the purchase of 40 percent of Philippine Airlines. There is also chatter that taipan Lucio Tan has decided to unload a substantial number of shares from the country’s flag carrier with the right buyer and divest his holdings at a premium price. PAL management has been struggling with labor disputes, high fuel costs and the potentially lethal open skies planned by the government. The “knight in shining armor” RSA is firm in offering to buy an initial 40 percent, eventually bumping it up to own the majority share of the flag carrier. Our friend, PAL president and COO Jimmy Bautista, has not confirmed or denied the current chatter regarding SMC, but Spy Bits sources claimed one thing is certain: Ramon Ang is dead set in getting into the airline business.

Not everything has been sunny lately for Asia’s first airline, with the transfer of pilots to other airlines and a labor dispute involving the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) over retirement age and other issues. A couple of days ago, PAL sought the reversal of a Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) ruling granting P220 million in back salaries plus the raising of flight attendants’ retirement age to 60.

PAL said it had incurred hefty losses since 2007 and called the DoLE order “confiscatory” as it compels the flag carrier to give up money that it has not earned. The airline is asking the Labor Department to go back to its earlier lump-sum offer of P80 million to FASAP and retain the retirement age of 45, pointing out that the retirement age for flight attendants from its biggest competitors in the region is below 60. A well known investment banker told Spy Bits the entry of Ramon Ang into PAL will be the best thing to happen to the airline and ultimately to the country as a whole.

[eladkram29]

Maybe MVP will try to buy also to PAL. The company needs good leader in order to be sustainable

[Evodesire]

My vote would go more for MVP buying into PAL than Ang. I'm quite not confident on SMC managing the new airline. But if this calls for free beers on board, I would give it a toast anytime ;D

[jetsetexpress]

I was showed to one of the investments recently by SMC, and it seems they're really into diversification and make their presence felt significantly. They're shares apparently leaped frog their "Frenemy" Metro Pacific in terms of shares value. Interesting to.

Baka maka tipid sila sa Jet Fuel with SMC. Petron is already under the conglomerate! ;D

[Evodesire]

Lets, winner takes all. I wonder then what will happen between PAL and APX. I also look forward to more fuel efficient aircrafts.

[seven13]

Tan may sell PAL for the ‘right price’
Sunday, 16 January 2011 19:39 Miguel R. Camus / Reporter


TYCOON Lucio Tan said he may sell his shares in Philippine Airlines (PAL) for the “right price,” a reversal from his earlier position on the issue six months ago.

The 76-year-old taipan controls the airline through PAL Holdings Inc., the listed holding firm that owns the flag carrier. PAL Holdings owns 84 percent of the carrier.

“Everything is for sale [for] the right price,” Tan said in response to media queries on whether he is selling the airliner during an event hosted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Friday.  

Last week, PAL Holdings said it is in “exploratory talks” for the sale of the airline, in reaction to a newspaper column saying San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang was in discussions to buy a stake in the company.

Tan on Friday declined to elaborate on whether he is in current talks with interested parties for the sale of PAL.

Shares of the illiquid holding firm surged 76 percent to P7.28 in the last two trading sessions, bringing its market value close to P40 billion on Friday.

In June, Tan said PAL was “not for sale” amid concerns over the airline’s labor and debt woes, apart from rising competition from budget carriers.

The company narrowed losses in its last fiscal year ending March to $14.3 million, from $297.8 million the previous year.

PAL Holdings has a public float of only 2.3 percent, making it non-compliant with the Philippine Stock Exchange’s minimum 10-percent float requirement and, subsequently, vulnerable to additional tax charges from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Tan, who has also made a name for himself in the tobacco, banking, liquor and real estate sectors, said he plans to retire “soon.”

In another development, PAL said eight pursers were retired by the airline management following a ruling from a Makati Court which removed all legal obstacles for their separation from service upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 55.

PAL vice president for human resources Jose SL Uybarreta said the flight pursers were informed of their retirement shortly after Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati Regional Trial Court’s Branch 147 lifted an injunction order which earlier barred the airline from enforcing a provision of their 2000-2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement pegging at 55 the retirement age of female flight attendants hired before November 22, 1996.

Uybarreta said the Makati court lifted the injunction order on January 4 after it was convinced that whatever damages may be sustained by the flight attendants—if it will be proven later that they should be retired at 60—“maybe computed, taking into consideration the salaries and benefits that they will earn if they retire at the age of 60, and not 55.”

The court required PAL to post a P5-million counter-injunction bond to answer for any or all damages the flight attendants may sustain if the court later determines that PAL is not entitled to the lifting of said injunction order.

Uybarreta said contrary to claims by the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association (Fasap), the retirement order is not in defiance of the Department of Labor and Employment’s December 23 ruling setting the retirement age of female flight attendants at 60.

“The DOLE ruling on the Fasap case is not yet final and executory as PAL is seeking reconsideration of the same. Pending a final determination of the real mandatory retirement age, it is PAL’s position that the current retirement age brackets as outlined in the existing collective bargaining agreement between PAL and Fasap should prevail,” he stressed.

(With Lenie Lectura)

www.businessmirror.com.ph/hom...he-right-price

posted first by Linguine of ssc

[Evodesire]

If LT sells PAL, then whats gonna happen to the partnership with APX?