Montinola family buys 9% of Roxas & Co.

The board of Roxas and Co. Inc. (RCI) is tightening its grip on the more than century-old real estate and sugar holding company as the family of one of its independent directors purchased a 9 percent stake at a steep discount. 

In a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, the new investor was identified as real estate developer Stonebridge Corp., which is led by Gizela Madrigal Gonzalez-Montinola, the wife of independent director Aurelio R. Montinola III. 

Stonebridge acquired 250 million shares of RCI, making it one of the company’s biggest stockholders after members of the controlling Elizalde and Roxas family.

Price surge 

Shares of RCI surged over 660 percent this year after businessman Leandro Leviste’s entry last March fuelled takeover rumors. Leviste recently reported owning 10 percent of RCI. 

Stonebridge acquired the shares through the purchase of RCI treasury shares at P2 each last May 3. This was a roughy 38 percent discount to the closing price that day. 

“The acquisition of the securities of RCI will allow Stonebridge to increase its presence in the real estate sector,” the stock exchange filing showed. 

Land ruling 

Last January, the Department of Agrarian Reform issued a ruling recognizing the company’s rights to about 1,619 hectares of land in Nasugbu, Batangas, its annual report showed. 

The department also ordered the distribution of 1,322 hectares to agrarian reform beneficiaries.