BDO Unibank of the Sy family has scuttled its deal to sell its listed shell company to a group led by the nephew of Philippine Stock Exchange director Vivian Yuchengco.
In a disclosure, BDO said that its deal with the group of self-styled backdoor king Vittorio Lim Jr. for the backdoor listing of BDO Leasing and Finance Inc. (BLFI) had expired on 24 January 2021 for failure to comply with the closing conditions of the deal they signed a year before.
BDO said it was unable to lift the suspension order imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the trading
suspension slapped by the Philippine Stock Exchange in January 2020 before the deadline.
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“BDO is now contemplating keeping BLFI, repurposed as a holding company, for its own investment purpose or, depending on the terms of outstanding offers, pursue the sale of its shares with other prospective buyers,” BDO said.
Last week, the BLFI board chaired by ultra bilyonaryo Tessie Sy approved the change in the name of BLF to Dominion Holdings. The shell firm’s makeover is the main agenda in BLF’s annual meeting on April 20.
Lim and his partner, Luis Yu Jr. of mass housing builder 8890 Holdings, signed a P5.451 billion deal to buy out the 88.54 percent
share of the Sy family in BLF in January 2020. Lim and Yu had planned to use BLF for a backdoor listing and rename it as United Platinum Holdings.
Lim’s previous backdoor deals include the takeover of Yehey! Corp. (converted to Apollo Global Capital) and shell mining firm Pacifica (taken over by 8990 Holdings).
BLF ceased to operate as a leasing company and completed the assignment and transfer of its leasing and financing business to an affiliate, BDO Finance, in October 2020.
BLF posted P43.6 million profit in 2021 derived mainly from fair value gain from investments in Unit Trust Investment Funds (UITFs). This is 651 percent more than the P5.8 million it earned in 2020 during the restructuring of BDO Unibank Group’s leasing business.