The Lopez family feud may finally be headed toward a truce.

At First Gen Corp.’s (FGEN) annual stockholders’ meeting on Thursday, chairman Federico “Piki” Lopez said Lopez Inc. had withdrawn a board resolution removing him as president — a move he described as a possible first step toward resolving the running rift within the clan.

“I view the gesture of withdrawing the board resolution as a possible first step for all parties to finally resolve the issues that have unfortunately been dividing our clan,” Lopez said.

“I hope that this initial step will lead to an amicable, fair, and lasting resolution of the rift within the family and the Lopez Group,” he added.

The comment is one of the clearest public signs yet that tensions within the Lopez family could be easing after months of internal conflict that spilled into the conglomerate’s leadership ranks.

Lopez, however, said he remained “fully prepared for any outcome” and would continue fulfilling his duties to shareholders of the Lopez Group’s companies, particularly FGEN and First Philippine Holdings Corp.

“I will continue to act as a responsible steward of these various businesses, particularly FGEN and First Philippine Holdings Corp., which have institutional minority shareholders with significant economic interests,” he said.

Stakes reduced

Despite the noise, FGEN president and COO Giles Puno separately said the company reduced its stake in the projects from 40 percent to 33 percent to preserve liquidity for other investments.

“FGEN decided to reduce its stake from 40 percent to 33 percent to ensure prudence in its capital allocation process,” Puno said.

Still, he said FGEN could eventually scale its investment back up.

“There is nothing that would prevent FGEN from engaging in discussions with Prime to scale the investment back up,” he said.

Puno also addressed concerns over an alleged “poison pill” provision in the Prime Infra agreements, clarifying that the clause was a standard “Change of Management Control Clause” or “Keyman Clause.”