Today is the last day for the few remaining stockholders of SFA Semicon Philippines Corporation (SSP) to sell or add more of the firm’s shares as these will be delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.

The PSE said in a memorandum that it has approved the Petition for Voluntary Delisting filed by the firm and accordingly ordered the delisting of the company’s shares from the Official Registry of the Exchange effective on Thursday.

The delisting from the Main Board of the bourse comes after SSP’s parent company concluded a tender offer which resulted in its ownership of 99.41 percent of SSP’s outstanding capital.

Once delisted, all of the issued and outstanding common shares of the company will no longer be available for trading on the PSE.

SSP said “the Voluntary Delisting will expedite the decision-making process of the Company and will allow it to be more flexible in the implementation of corporate activities, thereby continuing to develop and maintain the Company’s competitiveness.”

During the tender offer, SSP’s its parent company SFA Semicon Co. Ltd. (SFA Korea) acquired 192.77 million SSP shares at P2.22 per share, totaling P428 million. This represents 9.43 percent of the company's shares and was executed through the PSE on Nov. 21, 2024.

SFA Korea previously held an 89.98 percent stake in SSP. With the acquisition, its ownership now stands at 99.41 percent, leaving only 0.59 percent of shares in public hands.

This triggered the PSE's trading suspension of SSP shares due to non-compliance with the minimum public ownership requirement of at least 10 percent.

The PSE stated that  “pursuant to the Amended Rule on Minimum Public Ownership of the Exchange, listed companies which become non-compliant with the minimum public ownership ‘shall be suspended from trading for a period of not more than six months and shall be automatically delisted if it remains non-compliant with the MPO after the lapse of the suspension period.’”

SSP had previously disclosed SFA Korea's plan for voluntary delisting, initiating the tender offer to allow public shareholders an exit opportunity.

With the completion of the tender offer, SSP has fulfilled the PSE's requirement for voluntary delisting, that "[t]he person proposing the delisting must show to the Exchange that following the acquisition of the tendered shares, said person(s) have obtained a total of at least 95 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of the Listed Company."

Shareholders approved the voluntary delisting plan in a special stockholders' meeting on Oct. 11, 2024, with no votes cast against it. SSP's Board of Directors, including its two independent directors, had also approved the application for voluntary delisting in a special meeting on August 21, 2024.