EEI to divest from BiotechJP

EEI Corp. is set to unload its stake in BiotechJP Corp., its subsidiary engaged in food manufacturing and therapeutic food products.

In a stock exchange disclosure on Monday, EEI said its board had approved the divestment of its 60% interest or a total of about 181,815 common shares in BiotechJP.

It also noted that the company is still finalizing the terms and conditions of the sale.

Meanwhile, EEI announced the retirement of Ferdinand M. Del Prado, its current senior vice-president and commercial division head, effective Dec. 31.

Earlier this year, the listed construction company said that the board of its parent firm — House of Investments, Inc. — had approved the sale of about 14.35% of EEI’s common shares to Industry Holdings and Development Corp.

The transaction is part of the Yuchengco group’s strategy to assess its business interests and consolidate its other businesses into House of Investments.

This development follows the company’s announcement of the sale of its 20% stake in EEI to the Romualdez family-led firm RYM Business Management Corp. for P1.25 billion at P6.03 each of the 207.26 million common shares.

For the April-to-June period, EEI’s attributable net loss widened to P255.03 million from P94.03 million in the same period last year, pulled down by higher gross expense, its financial statement showed.

EEI recorded P3.88 billion in gross revenues for the second quarter, 24.4% higher than the P3.12 billion recorded last year. Its gross expense went up by 25.2% to P4.12 billion from P3.29 billion previously.

On Monday, shares in the company closed seven centavos or 1.49% higher at P4.77 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose