Biz Buzz: To delink or not to delink, Polo Club debate heats up
It wasn’t the choir that they wanted to preach to.
Tempers flared at Manila Polo Club on Monday afternoon as the board of trustees faced a crowd of more than 300 people to discuss the controversial proposal to delink proprietary shares from associate members, or heirs holding memberships attached to proprietary shares.
Another much-ballyhooed proposal is to allow widows and widowers of associate members to apply as “courtesy” members.
It was the first of two town hall meetings (the next one is today) set ahead of the club’s Aug. 27 annual membership meeting, when the matters will be put to vote alongside the election of the new board of trustees.
The current board clarified that the proposal to associate members to delink their membership for P2 million — a move that many fear will devalue proprietary shares — is not a fund-raising scheme but just to get the members to vote once and for all on a matter than had already been approved by the membership in 2019.
Nonetheless, the board said prospective proceeds would improve the experience of all members even as they noted that the club is now in a good financial position and would still be able to implement projects in the pipeline even without implementing the delinking plan, an attendee told Biz Buzz.
But one member pointed out during the meeting that the same amount of money could be raised by just selling six new club shares.
Another argued that the delinking would discriminate against proprietary shareholders, as the P2-million proposed fee is even cheaper than the cost of transferring proprietary shares to members’ children.
“Board can’t explain why proprietary members have to wait for 30 years to be lifetime [members] while the associate members get it automatically at P2 million,” said another attendee.
Some also brought up the the issue of trustees with “conflict of interest”— or those with both proprietary and associate memberships. Such trustees were urged to inhibit from the voting on Aug. 27.
Two trustees were identified to have such conflict of interest, one of whom already declared he would indeed inhibit. The other is noted to be the long-time proponent of the delinking plan. There was a suggestion to return the proxies solicited by pro-delinking trustees.
It also appeared that not too many members knew that the delinking plan had been ratified back in 2019.
“An overwhelming no” is how attendees described the overall sentiment on Monday. The more that the board defended the plan, the louder the dissenters became. — Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
Tiu goes on offensive
Agrinurture Inc. Chief Executive Officer Antonio L. Tiu has gotten quite used to threats, innuendo and personal attacks over more than 10 years.
While these do sting, Tiu, who just turned 49 years old, remains unfazed and has gone on the offensive.
Last week, Tiu’s Earthright Holdings Inc. filed a civil case with a Bulacan court seeking the rescission of the deed of assignment of subscription rights over 750 million common shares of stock of Earthright in listed Greenergy Holdings Inc. to MIS Maritime Corp.
The case was raffled off on Aug. 12 and is now lodged in a special commercial court with Isidra Arganosa-Maniego as presiding judge.
The civil suit sought a temporary restraining order and or preliminary injunction enjoining MIS and its representatives from exercising any supposed rights, including voting rights, over the Greenergy shares that Earthright had supposedly assigned.
Earthright sought in the case to be declared the absolute owner of the rights in Greenergy, on grounds that it had not been paid the P187.5 million for the shares, rendering any agreement invalid.
Whether Tiu and Earthright’s claims are valid will be up to the court to decide.
But in the meantime, Tiu claims that there are orchestrated efforts to blacken his name and drive down the price of Greenergy Holdings to make it easier – and cheaper – for competing groups to mount a hostile takeover.
But he is not about to just let others run roughshod over him, thus is preparing his own string of lawsuits.
As he told Biz Buzz, he had just served an appetizer. The main course will be served in due time. Abangan! — Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Raving about PERA
The Personal Equity and Retirement Account (PERA)—a voluntary retirement savings program of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that supplements state-based pension plans and employer-sponsored retirement plans—is becoming more popular among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
This is based on latest data from the BSP, which showed that out of the P457.61 million cumulative PERA contributions as of June 2024, around P78.8 million of that amount came from 782 OFW contributors.
That made OFWs the second biggest investor of PERA, beating the 880 self-employed individuals whose total contributions so far amounted to P63.12 million.
Meanwhile, employees continued to be the top contributor to PERA at P315.73 million.
PERA is a powerful tool in ensuring financial security upon retirement and promoting financial freedom for Filipino families. Notably, it provides contributors with tax benefits that are not available in other retirement investment products.
No wonder why more Filipinos—not just OFWs—are raving about it. — Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral
