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In todays disclosure in the PSE market, Premiere Horizon is not pursuing anymore the acquisition on Squidpay. Mr Marvin Dela Cruz owns at least 60% of outstanding capital stock of Squidpay Technology.

Board of Directors of PHA held a special meeting on 13 October 2022, and decided that it will no longer pursue its planned acquisition of 33% of SquidPay Technology, Inc. (“SPTI”), valued at Php561 million.

The decision has been made by PHA’s board of Directors,  following the determination that purchasing SPTI is no longer in the best interest of PHA and its shareholders given SPTI’s inability to operate a viable business.

The planned acquisition of 33% of SPTI was announced on 18 November 2021, at a time when the demand for e-wallets was rapidly rising. SPTI was earlier granted its Operator of Payment System (“OPS”) license, followed by its Electronic Money Issuer (“EMI”) license.

Subscription to these shares was valued at Php0.33 per share, for a total consideration of Php925 million. Of this amount, Php300 million was to be in cash and the balance of Php625 million was to be via a combination of cash and/or infusion of SPTI shares over a period of two years as set forth in the MOA which formed the basis of the subscription agreements.

PHA and Mr Marvin Dela Cruz had some exchange of formal letters  during the past several months to discuss and agree on how to pay the unpaid subscriptions.

PHA has noted that SPTI has not been able to execute on its planned projects nor attain its objectives.

Notably, roll-outs in key cities and partnerships with government agencies did not materialize. SPTI has also been embroiled in recent financial troubles that make it clear that SPTI will not add value to PHA. Mr. Dela Cruz has also not responded to PHA’s requests for meetings to discuss the valuation of SPTI.

From the total subscription of 2,803,030,303 shares, the investor group of Mr. Dela Cruz has already paid fully 1,124,658,104 shares at a subscription value of Php317,137,174.00. PHA has a subscription receivable of Php553,862,825.67 from the investor group for the remaining 1,678,372,199 shares.

Since PHA will no longer be acquiring SPTI, the investor group will be required to pay the remaining balance in cash. As provided in the MOA, the Board has reiterated and confirmed that the investor group has until 29 October 2022 to complete the payment as per the terms of the agreement.

Source: https://edge.pse.com.ph/openDiscViewer.do?edge_no=8be71f9212f55d3b3470cea4b051ca8f

PHA share price is currently hovering at 0.27 peso/share.