Delisted Calata to List in Bitcoin Exchange

SAYING it has no choice but to be delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Calata Corp. said it will instead list itself in a cryptocurrency exchange. 

Joseph H. Calata, the company’s chairman, president and CEO, said the company will issue digital token to its shareholders that is equivalent to their ownership of Calata stock. 

Crytocurrency, the most popular form of which is called Bitcoin, is not being regulated in the Philippines, and regulators are discouraging its use. 

“We have to embrace technology,” Calata said in a briefing with reporters.

The controversial move comes after reports that Calata is already delisted by the PSE from the exchange.

Calata said its shareholders have two options. One is to convert their stock into bitcoins. Another is to hold on to the stock and wait for dividends to come. Calata said the company bearing his family name is in no position to make a tender offer. 

A digital token, in principle, is similar to issuing a check in digital form. The holder of the token has the right to claim the underlying asset that, in Calata’s case, is the firm’s agriculture business.

Calata said he will list the company in two months in one of the European exchanges. 

“We will teach all shareholders, and we will give them the accounts on the exchange. Give it six months, and your shares in Calata can be traded as ‘Calcoins,’” he said.

Calata said the PSE is forcing the company to take the voluntary-delisting route instead of getting forcibly kicked out from the exchange. Voluntary delisting, however, involves making a tender offer or buying out the other shareholders. The company is 70-percent owned by the public. While its owner, Calata, only controls about 30 percent, Calata is still the single biggest shareholder.  “Based on its 2016 audited financial statements, Calata Corp. only has around P400 million retained earnings. Should a tender offer be made, the company needs to have around P1 billion to buy back its public shareholders,” it said.

The company in August said it is, instead, selling out to Millenium Global Holdings Inc., another listed firm, which will buy 81 percent of Calata shares via subscription to 2.5 billion unissued shares.

The company said it will then transfer all its current assets and liabilities to another firm before it will fold-in the assets and liabilities of Millenium Global to its unit Millenium Ocean Star Corp., which has its own seafood business.

Millenium Global, however, backed out from that deal. 

In July the PSE decided to start involuntary delisting procedures against agricultural firm, barely a month after it suspended its shares from trading.

PSE said in its notice that it found Calata to have violated its disclosure rules by 29 times during November 29, 2016, through June 20. PSE also found 26 violations of Section 13.2 of the PSE Disclosure Rules from October 6, 2016 to March 16, and April 26 to May 2.

“Under the scale of penalties in the PSE Disclosure Rules, the fourth and succeeding violations of the PSE Disclosure Rules constitute grounds for delisting,” it said.