At present, 2GO Inc. is the
Philippines’ largest company for passenger and cargo transport and logistics services.
It got that way thanks to its 2010 merger, as Negros Navigation, with the
Aboitiz Transport System which had earlier merged its SuperFerry with Cebu
Ferries and SuperCat. For a time, its top 3 shareholders have been KGLI-NM
Holdings, SM Investments, and the China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund. Due
to the COVID crisis tanking passenger travel and shipping, 2GO Inc. has been
taking some significant losses. To weather the storm a major stakeholder, Chelsea
Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings under Davao businessman Dennis Uy, is
passing its stake to SMIC.
The Manila Bulletin reports that SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) is
acquiring Dennis Uy’s Chelsea Logistics’ 31.73 percentage stake in 2GO Inc.,
gaining control of the country’s largest shipping company. This was disclosed on
Friday, March 19, to the Philippine Stock Exchange by SMIC, of which the board
of directors has approved acquiring the shares for 2GO from Chelsea, which held
781.24 million shares valued at P8.50 per share. SM Investments thus enters the
logistics services field even as Uy downsizes his own logistics arm, part of
the larger Udenna Group.
KGLI-NM Holdings, a 90-percent
owned subsidiary of Chelsea Logistics, will facilitate the sale of 2GO shares
to SMIC, a process that is said to take up to three months. This action will
thus prevent Chelsea from being further affected by 2GO’s losses, as proceeds
of the sale will then go towards paying the initial loan undertaken to acquire
the shares to begin with. A separate disclosure by Chelsea president and CEO
Alfonsus Damuy notes, "With the divestment, Chelsea will not be impacted
by 2GO losses, which will aid the Company in recovering from the current
COVID-19 pandemic." Chelsea’s net loss in 2020 was P2.6 billion, far more
than the P20-million profit it made in 2019.
Dennis Uy had in early 2020 come
under fire in social media when it was discovered that some ships of the 2GO
Group were being rented by the government to serve as floating quarantine
facilities for P35 million. Uy therefore announced that 2GO will not accept any
government payment via the Department of Transportation (DOTr), which in turn
noted that the media treated Uy unfairly.
Image courtesy of Rappler
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