Leviste, MVP join forces to save RHI
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Countryside CEO Leandro Leviste and First Pacific CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan sign a term sheet to invest P5B in Roxas Holdings Inc. with First Pacific Associate Director Stanley Yang, UBS Asia Pacific Head of Global Capital Markets Lauro Baja, and Roxas Holdings CFO Christopher Lizo.
Photo courtesy of Countryside via MARIA ROMERO
To salvage the struggling Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI) from the brink of bankruptcy, GenZ business magnate Leandro Leviste of Countryside Investments Holdings Corp. and First Pacific’s tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan collaborated once more, embarking on a new partnership, shelling out P5 billion investments to take up an initial 71.6 percent of RCI.
According to Leviste, the investment will help Roxas Holdings service debt to avoid bankruptcy, increase tax revenues of the municipality of Nasugbu, and create more and better jobs for the benefit of local farmers and former sugar industry workers.
Roxas Holdings currently has P4.4 billion of debt to banks including Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), BDO Unibank Inc., and Land Bank of the Philippines; and P1.4 billion of trade payables.
The land of Roxas Holdings is beside the 2,494 hectares owned by Roxas and Company Inc. (RCI), another beleaguered company.
Leviste is set to fund this investment from the proceeds of the sale of shares in SP New Energy Corporation (SPNEC) to Pangilinan’s Meralco PowerGen Corporation, which, along with Metro Pacific Investments Corp., has purchased shares in SPNEC for P20.4 billion to date.
In Nasugbu, Batangas, the municipality recently delivered a notice of collection to RCI, threatening foreclosure due to unpaid real property taxes.
RCI, a company listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, is managed by Pedro Roxas.
Once the biggest integrated sugar producer in the nation, Roxas Holdings owns Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc., a former sugar refinery and mill, along with 236 hectares of land in Nasugbu.
Roxas Holdings shut down its sugar business in March 2024 after 97 years of operations.
Roxas Holdings also owns San Carlos Bioenergy Inc., a bioethanol plant in Negros Occidental.
RCI currently owes P4.3 billion of debt to banks, with approximately half owed to BPI, including debt secured by RCI’s disputed lands.
Before the Roxas Holdings deal, Leviste became the largest individual shareholder of RCI, acquiring 10 percent of its outstanding shares.
In compliance with Section 19 of the Securities Regulation Code, Leviste also recently disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission his intention to increase his stake in RCI to over 15 percent.
Last Friday, RHI’s shares closed up 49.23 percent at P0.97 per share and RCI’s shares closed up 40.89 percent to P4.10 per share.
