Young tycoon Leandro Legarda Leviste has acquired the equivalent of 8.5 percent of ABS-CBN Corporation, continuing his buying binge after selling a portion of his stake in SP New Energy Corporation to Meralco PowerGen Corporation.
ABS-CBN’s share price has surged over the past week and ended at P5.10 per share at the close of trading on the PSE today (May 2), valuing Leviste's 76.5 million shares at P390.15 million. The average acquisition price was not disclosed.
With the purchase of these shares through the stock exchange, LL Holdings, Inc. is now the largest shareholder of ABS-CBN after the Lopez family’s Lopez, Inc.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ABS-CBN said Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste has purchased 76.5 million shares of ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Holdings Corporation (ABSP).
This consists of 75.88 million shares of ABS-CBN owned through Leviste’s LL Holdings Inc. (LLH) and 619,000 shares of ABSP through LLH’s parent company Countryside Investments Holdings Corporation.
Countryside’s ABSP shares are in the process of being converted into ABS-CBN shares. After the conversion, Countryside plans to transfer these shares to LLH.
A social media post by Leviste’s Solar Philippines noted that “The disclosure comes just a week before Mother’s Day. Leviste is the son of Senator Loren Legarda, who rose to prominence as an award-winning producer and news anchor on ABS-CBN starting in 1986.”
Legarda anchored ABS-CBN’s World Tonight at the time Leviste was born in 1993, up to her run for the Senate in the 1998 elections.
“ABS-CBN is a great company that has helped countless people over the years. I hope there may now be a way for us to be of help, for the benefit of ABS-CBN’s shareholders and employees, and the media industry of the Philippines,” Leviste said.
Solar Philippines has sold over P6 billion worth of shares of SP New Energy Corporation (SPNEC) in the past year. Solar Philippines and affiliates still own 20.6 billion shares of SPNEC valued at approximately P22 billion.
After the sale, Leviste disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 19 that he had acquired a 7.55 percent stake in cash-strapped Roxas and Company, Inc. (RCI) to become its largest individual shareholder.