Tan transfers Megaworld stake to holding firm

Megaworld Corp chairman Andrew Tan has transferred 441.7 million shares he owns in the property developer to holding company Alliance Global Inc. as part of efforts to consolidate his assets in one holding company. But Tan still directly owns 81.3 million in the high-rise builder, Francisco Canuto, first vice president and corporate information officer at Megaworld, told the Philippine Stock Exchange. The transfer comes almost a week after Alliance Global said it would acquire one fourth of Megaworld for four billion new shares worth P17 billion without saying who would get the new shares. Trading in Alliance Global shares were suspended by the PSE Monday after that disclosure, which was later clarified to be part of Tan’s efforts to make Alliance Global his holding company. In the February 16 statement, Alliance Global said it would also buy third largest liquormaker Emperador Distillers Inc., a company owned by Andrew Tan, for P3 billion. -GMANews.TV