HedgeCo.Net — First Philippine Holdings said Monday it had rejected a KKR proposal to buy an 8.43% stake in First Gen and launch a tender for the power producer’s public float, telling the Philippine Stock Exchange the offer “does not represent First Gen’s true value.” The structure, reported by Reuters via CNA and in FPH’s disclosure as carried by Manila Bulletin, was a non-binding package: KKR would have bought the 8.43% slice from FPH at 35 pesos a share, then tendered for the 11.67% public float at the same price, a takeover Reuters put at about 165.44 billion pesos, or $2.69 billion, and a step toward a voluntary delisting from the PSE.
The price was the entire argument. Manila Bulletin said the 8.43% slice was valued at 10.6 billion pesos at 35 pesos a share. FPH holds 67.84% of First Gen, according to LSEG data cited by CNA. First Gen itself was valued at 110.63 billion pesos as of Friday’s close, which means the 35-peso tender sat well above the last print and still failed to clear the controlling shareholder. Earlier coverage of the same proposal had discussed a higher figure if a control premium of at least 30% were applied. Monday’s rejection was about the 35-peso package that was actually on the table.
This is a familiar emerging-markets take-private pattern. A global sponsor bids for a listed infrastructure cash-flow stream, uses a stake purchase from the family or conglomerate holder to set the tender price, and files for a delisting once the public float is small enough. The Lopez-controlled group declined to sell the toehold that would have started that clock. KKR does not get the platform. FPH keeps the power subsidiary. Minority holders keep a listed stub.
For private-equity allocators the diligence is the gap between sponsor underwriting and controller reservation price. A $2.7 billion headline on a name that closed Friday at 110.63 billion pesos looks like a premium in the tape and a discount in the boardroom. Energy and infrastructure take-privates in ASEAN often die on that spread, not on financing. The next print to watch is whether KKR revises the peso bid or walks.
The second-order read is about who sets the cap table in family-controlled utilities. Sponsors can price the public float. They cannot force the 67.84%. Until the controller agrees that 35 pesos, or some other number, is “true value,” First Gen stays listed, and the take-private calendar in Philippine power stays a rumor with a Reuters handle, not a signed deal.