Nosy Tarsee found a famous Japanese industrial giant and a famous Manila conglomerate standing together in an alliance. Sources say every alliance has a price. This one is priced in shares.

The listed holding firm is being asked to release treasury stock, shares it bought back over the years, at P650 apiece.

Now the arithmetic. The company paid an average of P767.81 per share. It will sell them for P650. That is P117.81 lost on every share, a cut of about 15 percent against cost. Sell 10 million shares and the shortfall passes P1.17 billion. The number grows with the block.

Treasury shares are not free money. The company bought them with cash, at the company’s price, under the promise that buybacks serve shareholders. Sold below cost, they book a loss. Minority holders who watched the buyback will want to know why they have to carry the loss.

Fair question. The alliance camp will have a fair answer. Strategic partners pay for access, not for the ticker. A discount buys a seat, a signature, a long relationship. Perhaps P650 is the price of a partner worth having, or the price was fixed before the market moved.

But note who sets the price and who sits on both sides of the table when an anchor family invites a strategic partner into the house. The ones who grant a discount are seldom the ones who pay for it.

Here is what Nosy Tarsee would like the company to answer, in plain language: Who fixed the P650, and on what basis? Was there a fairness opinion or an independent valuation?

How wide is the discount against the market price at signing? Will the board disclose the accounting loss against the P767.81 average cost?

Did the independent directors weigh in, and is that on record?