The exit is one of the biggest shifts in the ownership of the Lopez empire in years, removing one of its major family shareholder blocs from the company that ultimately controls the group’s core businesses.
The sale emerged after Roberta L. Feliciano resigned as a director of First Philippine Holdings effective Aug. 9, with the listed company citing Crème’s disposal of its Lopez Inc. shares.
The deal was first reported by news publication Bilyonaryo.
Family empire
Lopez Inc. is the family’s principal holding company, through which the clan controls businesses spanning power, property and media, including First Philippine Holdings, First Gen, Rockwell Land and ABS-CBN Corp.
The family also retains a 3.94 percent minority stake in Manila Electric Co., or Meralco.
The disclosure did not identify who bought Crème’s 25.7 percent stake or how much was paid, leaving unanswered how the sale reshapes ownership and control of Lopez Inc.
Family tensions
The transaction comes after months of tensions among Lopez family shareholders, including an earlier attempt by a majority shareholder bloc to remove Gabby's cousin, Federico “Piki” Lopez, as president and CEO of Lopez Inc.
That effort was eventually withdrawn, but the latest sale represents a much more consequential change by altering the ownership of the family’s parent company itself.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
