050407: SEC okays Ayala Corp capital hike to P37B

By Zinnia B. Dela Peña
The Philippine Star 05/04/2007

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the increase in the capital stock of Ayala Corp. from P26 billion to P37 billion and its proposed 20 percent stock dividend.

Entitled to Ayala Corp.’s stock dividend are those stockholders of record as of May 22. The dividends are payable on June 18.

Also approved by the SEC is the capital hike of Ayala Corp.’s property unit Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) from P12 billion to P20 billion and its declaration of a 20 percent stock dividend to shareholders of record as of May 22.

Ayala Corp.’s share price has been the best performing large-cap stock on the Philippine Stock Exchange last year, nearly doubling in value and outperforming the main index.

The conglomerate’s total return to shareholders last year was at 89 percent, the highest it achieved in over a decade.

In the past five years, the market value of Ayala Corp.’s property, banking and telecommunications businesses more than doubled and in some cases, tripled. ALI’s present market value of P165 billion is more than three times what it was in 2001 while Bank of the Philippine Islands’ (BPI) current market value of P168 billion is almost two times larger than it was five years ago.

Ayala Corp. posted a net profit of P12.2 billion last year, up 49 percent from the previous level, mainly due to the strong performance of its subsidiaries and affiliates, lower interest expense, and gains from asset sales.

ALI, meanwhile, reported a seven percent increase in net profit last year to P3.9 billion on the back of a 20-percent growth in revenues.

 

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200705040705.htm