The transaction, involving 315.31 million shares, was valued at P50 per share share—a 36.2 percent premium to the current market price. Robinsons Retail shares jumped nearly 8 percent on Friday’s morning session. It's currently trading at P37.95 per share, up 3.41 percent.
GCH Investments is owned by DFI Retail, formerly known as Dairy Farm International. It became a major investor in RRHI in 2018 when Robinsons acquired Rustan Supercenters Inc. through a share-swap deal.
DFI later increased its RRHI stake by buying secondary shares from the Gokongwei family and other investors.
Vote of confidence from Gokongweis
“RRHI views this buyback transaction as a strategic move to optimize capital allocation and create more value to its stakeholders,” the company said in the filing.
“Moreover, the ongoing share repurchase program reflects the company's belief that current market prices do not fully reflect the underlying financial strength and long-term growth prospects of RRHI,” it added.
Management’s view
“DFI has been instrumental in RRHI’s growth over the last few years,” said RRHI president and CEO Stanley C. Co.
“Our acquisition of RSCI in 2018 and Rose Pharmacy in 2020 from DFI has allowed us to enter the premium food retail business and expand our drugstore presence in the Visayas and Mindanao regions as we added The Marketplace, Shopwise, and Rose Pharmacy into our portfolio,” Co said.
“This partnership has also paved the way for RRHI to become the exclusive distributor of DFI’s private label brands – Meadows and Guardian – in the country. For this, we are deeply grateful for the partnership we have forged with DFI through the years,” he added.
RRHI will continue to exclusively distribute the Meadows and Guardian brands in the Philippines.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
