The Philippine sovereign wealth fund and Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) moved to take the port operator private after a tender offer successfully cleared the threshold required for a voluntary delisting from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), ATI announced that investors tendered 177,612,478 common shares by the March 3 deadline, approximately 9.16 percent of the company’s issued and outstanding listed stock.

The participation, when combined with existing non-public and excluded holdings, brings the total non-public stake in the terminal operator to 99.29 percent. This figure exceeds the 95 percent minimum ownership level mandated by exchange rules for a company to delist its shares.

The transaction marked the deployment of capital for Maharlika Investment Corp., the Philippines' sovereign wealth fund, which has increasingly pivoted toward active infrastructure investments under its current leadership.

Of the validly tendered shares, Maharlika was allocated 101,189,675 shares, while Asian Terminals itself acquired 76,422,803 shares through a buyback mechanism. The offer was priced at ₱36 per share, according to previous terms, valuing the total block of tendered shares at approximately ₱6.39 billion.

Asian Terminals operates critical trade gateways, including the Manila South Harbor and the Port of Batangas. The move to go private comes as the company continues to invest billions of pesos into port infrastructure and sustainable technologies, such as facilities for liquefied natural gas-powered vessels, to maintain its position in the regional logistics chain.

The public float of the company is expected to drop to 0.74 percent once the shares are crossed on March 13. Trading in the shares will be suspended that same day, with final settlement for shareholders who participated in the offer scheduled for March 17. Following the settlement, the company will finalize its petition for delisting with the exchange.

The delisting follows a broader trend of companies seeking to exit the local bourse to gain greater operational flexibility and avoid the costs associated with public reporting requirements.

For Maharlika, the acquisition aligns with its 2026 mandate to secure strategic domestic assets that resolve structural chokepoints in the national economy.