Countryside Investments Holdings Corp. (CIHC), a company owned by young businessman Leandro Leviste, bought an 8.5-percent stake in Lopez-owned ABS-CBN Corp.
Leviste’s mother, Senator Loren Legarda, used to work as a news anchor at ABS-CBN before embarking on a political career.
ABS-CBN said in a report to the stock exchange Thursday that CIHC through its wholly-owned subsidiary LL Holdings Inc. acquired 76,500,000 shares of ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. (ABSP), equivalent to 8.50 percent of the company’s total issued and outstanding common shares.
This makes LL Holdings Inc. the second largest shareholder of ABS-CBN after the Lopez family’s Lopez Inc.
Leviste’s stake in ABS-CBN consists of 75,881,000 ABS common shares under LL Holdings Inc. and 619,000 ABSP shares owned by CIHC.
CIHC is now in the process of converting its ABSP shares into ABS-CBN shares, which it plans to transfer to LL Holdings.
“ABS-CBN is a great company that has helped countless people over the years. I hope there may now be a way for us to be of help, for the benefit of ABS-CBN’s shareholders and employees, and the media industry of the Philippines,” Leviste said in a statement posted on Solar Philippines’ social media account.
Solar Philippines is the renewable energy firm owned by Leviste, which holds minority stake in SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC).
ABS-CBN’s share price surged 38 percent over the past week after hitting a 52-week low of P3.08 per share.
It climbed 18.06 percent Thursday to close at P5.10, valuing Leviste’s 76.5 million shares at about P390 million.
Leviste’s Solar Philippines sold over P6 billion worth of shares in SPNEC in the past year. He still owns 20.6 billion shares of SPNEC valued at about P22 billion.
ABS-CBN reported a net loss of P9.7 billion in 2023, higher than the P2.5-billion net loss it booked in 2022 in the absence of political advertising.
Consolidated revenues were at P18.51 billion, almost flat compared to the previous year’s P18.55 billion.
CIHC said in March it would invest over P5 billion to help boost development in western Batangas.
The investments are focused on sectors that promise high-impact benefits for the local economy, including energy, industrial and commercial projects.