Businessman Tiu sues to rescind transfer of 750M Greenergy shares over alleged nonpayment

Agriculture entrepreneur Antonio Tiu has sued a firm he used to head, Greenergy Holdings Inc., along with another company, to rescind a 2023 deal where he assigned shares of stock in the firm to his fellow directors — a transaction for which the businessman said he has yet to be paid.

The civil case was filed last week in a Bulacan court seeking to cancel an agreement involving the assignment of rights over 750 million shares in Greenergy, which Tiu’s firm, Earthright Holdings, had supposedly transferred to a firm called MIS Maritime Holdings.

The case is now under the jurisdiction of a special commercial court.

Antonio Tiu

The businessman believes the negative reports about him are meant to tarnish his reputation and manipulate Greenergy’s stock price, potentially setting the stage for a hostile takeover.

In the complaint, Tiu said he was convinced by his fellow directors – Greenergy chairman Edgardo Lacson and Greenergy president Martin Subido –“to temporarily resign as director of the firm and assign his shares to them ‘in [a] blind trust’. Tiu said this was because he was, at one point, “shortlisted to be appointed to a position in the Department of Agriculture.”

Tiu’s suit asked the court to stop MIS and its representatives from exercising any rights, including voting rights, over the disputed shares. This was because the agreed payment of P187 million for the shares was never made, rendering the deed of assignment invalid.

The complaint also says that any documentation suggesting Tiu received the payment is flawed and thus inadmissible.

But MIS’ counsel says…

Meanwhile, MIS counsel Bayan Quiñones countered Tiu’s narration.

In a message to InsiderPH, he said: "If Mr. Tony Tiu claims that his company was not paid for the assignment of shares in favor of MIS, such a claim is a mere figment of his imagination.”

“The best evidence is the official receipt issued more than a year ago by his company, as full payment for the assignment of shares,” the lawyer said. “Maybe he failed to account for the money he received.”

Fighting to clear his name

Tiu said the complaint is the opening salvo of what he expects to be a long fight to clear his name in the wake of recent adverse publicity. He said the negative reports about him are meant to tarnish his reputation and manipulate Greenergy’s stock price, potentially setting the stage for a hostile takeover.

“I have [debt] obligations as businessman, but I have never run away from any of them,” Tiu said in a message to InsiderPH, dismissing allegations that he will run away from his bank loans.

“I have faced all of them just like what I did 10 years ago post-Senate hearings on ‘Hacienda Binay’,” he added. “I have assets enough to cover what I owe.”