Philippine conglomerate Ayala to take 20.2% stake in Yoma Strategic

PHILIPPINE conglomerate Ayala Corp will take up a 20.2 per cent stake in mainboard-listed Yoma Strategic Holdings Z59 , after the latter's second tranche of placement shares was restructured into a perpetual loan which can only be redeemed by way of allotment and issuance of ordinary shares in Yoma Strategic's capital.

The companies have converted Ayala's 5-year loan to Yoma Strategic, together with accrued interests, into a perpetual loan of US$49.1 million under a restructured loan agreement.

In 2019, Ayala, through its indirect wholly-owned Singapore subsidiary VIP Infrastructure Holdings, had completed its subscription of Yoma Strategic's first tranche of placement shares, in which it took up 332.5 million shares or 14.9 per cent interest in the company.

Later in 2020, Ayala provided a 5-year loan of US$46.4 million to Yoma Strategic, as part of the latter's second tranche of placement shares.

The shares will be redeemed at an issue price of S$0.45 per share, which is the same issue price as the first tranche placement shares, Myanmar-focused Yoma Strategic said in a bourse filing on Wednesday (Dec 29).

Yoma noted that Ayala had remained supportive of the company despite the continued uncertainty in the economic and business environment in Myanmar, hence the companies "feel that it would be in their respective best interests" to enter the restructured loan agreement.

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The loan, as at Dec 29, has also been fully utilised in the manner set out in the placement agreement, which includes funding the growth and expansion of the group's various businesses and refinancing existing indebtedness.

Yoma will convene an extraordinary general meeting to seek specific shareholders' approval from independent shareholders for the proposed redemption shares issuance.

Shares of Yoma Strategic closed at S$0.131 on Thursday (Dec 30), down 0.8 per cent or S$0.001.

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