August 22, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines —The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) lifted the trading suspension of Dominion Holdings Inc. (DHI) after it complied with regulatory requirements.
In a regulatory filing, DHI (formerly BDO Leasing and Finance Inc.) said its shareholders can now resume trading their shares in the local bourse starting Aug. 20.
The trading of DHI shares was initially suspended on Jan. 27, 2020 due to the investment holding company’s voluntary decision to halt trading.
The suspension was also due to a requirement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where DHI had to amend its registration statement to reflect the shift in its primary purpose from a leasing and financing business to a holding company.
Last month, the SEC lifted its order to suspend DHI’s registration statement, allowing the Sy-led investment holding firm to be registered as a listed company.
Meanwhile, in a separate disclosure, DHI said it would continue investing its financial assets in money market placements, debt securities, and other short-term but high-yielding instruments.
DHI will also carefully analyze other investment opportunities as part of its plans.
“DHI does not expect any product research and development, purchase or sale of plant and equipment, nor any significant change in the number of employees for the term of the plan,” it said.
In January 2020, BDO Unibank Inc. and BDO Capital & Investments Corp. signed an agreement to sell their 88.5 percent controlling stake in then-BDOLF to a new group of investors, including businessmen Luis Yu Jr., Victor Lim Jr. and Vittorio Lim.
After the transaction, the SEC suspended the registration statement of BDOLF in February 2020 to protect investors amid the incomplete and inaccurate disclosure on the sale of the controlling stake.
The unit of BDO immediately asked for reconsideration for the suspension of its registration statement, which prohibited the company from selling shares to the public.
However, the agreement with the third-party buyers lapsed on Jan. 24, 2021, for failure to comply with the closing conditions due to the non-resolution by the SEC of BDOLF’s request for reconsideration of SEC’s suspension order.
The sale was part of restructuring its leasing business via BDOLF to optimize clients’ financial needs in light of new accounting regulations covering lease transactions.
Due to the restructuring, the assets of BDOLF were transferred to other entities of the parent bank, particularly BDO Finance Corp., leaving the unit as a listed holding company of BDO.
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