Pangilinan ‘not liable’ in alleged insider trading

By Jonathan de Santos
Friday, October 14, 2011
MANILA — Businessman Manuel Pangilinan is free from liability in perceived insider trading of Philex Mining shares since he was only a buyer, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Friday.
The Senate blue ribbon committee held a hearing on Friday to look into loans totaling P660 million that the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) granted to companies owned by businessman Roberto Ongpin.
Although the Senate panel expects Ongpin, currently abroad on business, to attend hearings, it will not invite Pangilinan to the proceedings.
“There’s no need. He was (just) the buyer. He told Ongpin ‘this is my price and I’m willing to buy.’ That’s why Ongpin knew there was a buyer (for the Philex shares),” Enrile, an ex-officio member of the blue ribbon committee, said.
The deal, where Ongpin sold 50 million shares in Philex at P21 after buying them at P12.75 each, was done without the knowledge of the DBP, its former president Reynaldo David said.
“I didn’t know he was accumulating (shares). I thought he was trading,” he told senators.
The loans, in tranches of P150 million and P510 million, were used to buy shares in Philex Mining that DBP owned.
David said DBP was looking to sell off its shares to recoup losses from the 2008 financial crisis when Ongpin offered to buy them as long as the bank agreed to loan him the money for the deal.
Ongpin’s Golden Media Corp. bought 50 million shares of Philex Mining with P660 million that the DBP lent him.
At the last hearing, current DBP officials said the previous board of directors bent lending rules for Ongpin. The loans were approved within two weeks of application, and the P510-million loan was approved on the same day.
Ongpin, in a statement last Friday, said the loans were above board and not behest loans as the DBP and Solicitor General Jose Cadiz say.
He also denied that there was any insider trading since it was public knowledge that Pangilinan wanted control of Philex.
But Enrile said Pangilinan and Ongpin had negotiated the price at a meeting in Shangri-la hotel in Makati.
Ongpin had wanted P27 per share but only got P21, the Senate President said, adding that Ongpin started accumulating Philex shares after that.
Enrile also said that the meeting happened before the DBP approved a second loan of P510 million in November 2009.
“This was between June and December because Manny Pangilinan became a director of Philex in June of 2009,” he said.
The meeting, he added, was not disclosed to the DBP or to other shareholders.
“He alone knew that,” the senator said. “It is very obvious that Mr. Ongpin took advantage of information that only he knew.”
David insisted he did not know anything about that.
“We were selling shares to recover (losses),” he said.
David also said that DBP suffered losses after investment firm Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. He said Lehman Brothers was “considered the better investment” until it collapsed.
“He brought us to the deal,” David said, referring to Ongpin.
“Mr. President, you have just accused Mr. Pangilinan and Mr. Ongpin of insider trading,” Senator Sergio Osmeña III said.
At the last hearing, Audit commission chair Grace Pulido-Tan said an initial investigation into the stock trade found “certain indications that some form of insider trading may have happened, some fraud may have happened.”
The Commission on Audit fraud and investigation office is taking a closer look, she said.
After the hearing last week, Osmeña said Ongpin was “very lucky” to buy the shares at P12 and sell them for P21 four weeks later.
“You better tell that to the Marines (that) you didn’t know that that would be Manny Pangilinan’s target price,” he said.
Ongpin, in his statement, said that “to expect myself or the members of the former DBP Board of Directors, or anyone for that matter, to foretell future stock prices is the height of absurdity.”
He said that had he known the price for Philex shares would reach P28, he would not have sold the shares.
Ongpin also said DBP made money on the deal.
“At an acquisition cost of around P5.90 per share, when DBP sold its 50 million Philex shares at P12.75 per share on 5 November 2009, it was already at more than double its investment cost,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Enrile said.
He said that was like stealing someone’s wallet, using the money inside to gamble at a casino, and then giving the owner part of the earnings. (Sunnex)
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2011/10/14/pangilinan-not-liable-alleged-insider-trading-185084

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