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  1. Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    2,854
    #1
    The raging issue regarding the oil prices in the Philippines as well as other important utilities such as water and electricity prompted one government official to suggest that the government should compel utilities to list in the stock exchange so that the public may scrutinize and monitor their financial statements. This will determine if they are pofiteering or not.

    Meralco and Aboitiz are among the utilities companies that are publicly listed.

    In the oil industry for instance, the oil deregulation law stipulates that oil firms should immediately list their stocks in the PSE by having their IPO.

    Only Petron and perhaps another small oil firm complied with the rule.

    Shell, Caltex, Eastern Petroleum, Seaoil have remained unlisted.

    Their products are so socially sensitive that their movements are closely monitored by the state and the public.

    What do you think?
    Last edited by jpdm; October 28th, 2008 at 08:44 AM.

  2. Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    1,751
    #2
    i think nasa oil deregulation law na oil companies must be publicly listed after a certain period. the issue has been raised this year because of the spiraling cost of crude. pero wala rin.

  3. Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    2,854
    #3
    Quote Originally Posted by coiter View Post
    i think nasa oil deregulation law na oil companies must be publicly listed after a certain period. the issue has been raised this year because of the spiraling cost of crude. pero wala rin.

    Indeed sir, notably Shell and Caltex. But Im not sure whats keeping our regulators from ordering these companies to follow the rules...

    perhaps, the government does not want to antagonize Shell because of its pending plan to expand its refinery here in the Philippines?

    For me Shell and Caltex should go public so that once and for all their books will be open to the public so that any speculation about their earnings will be diminished somehow....

  4. Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    185
    #4
    Quote Originally Posted by jpdm View Post
    Indeed sir, notably Shell and Caltex. But Im not sure whats keeping our regulators from ordering these companies to follow the rules...

    perhaps, the government does not want to antagonize Shell because of its pending plan to expand its refinery here in the Philippines?

    For me Shell and Caltex should go public so that once and for all their books will be open to the public so that any speculation about their earnings will be diminished somehow....

    Agree, sir!

  5. Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    787
    #5
    The Oil Deregulation Law mandates companies that operate oil refineries to be publicly listed. Caltex (Chevron) doesn't operate a refinery anymore so it's not required to list.

    Pilipinas Shell, on the other hand, has been pretending that it's going to list for a loooooong time. The DOE should impose a fine for every single day it does not list.

  6. Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    1,099
    #6
    if the law requires them to publicly list their companies, and they're hanging on empty promises. then that's greed na talaga. no doubt.

  7. Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    39,162
    #7

    If they already passed the prescribed date to be publicly-listed,- then they should be penalized ... The spirit of the oil deregulation law is to benefit the general public. Sadly, this is not happening.

    6909:seehearspeak:

  8. Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    2,854
    #8
    I hope ULS, Gen Miting and Tidus will read this....

    Will it make oil companies stronger if they will sell a portion of the company to the public via an IPO?

  9. Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    22,705
    #9
    Technically, yes... it'd make raising capital much easier. But of course, public listing is to the disadvantage of those who own the corporations, as it makes them vulnerable to takeovers (remembering what happened to one school... they implemented a stock-sharing scheme one day... then woke up the next to find out they were bought out by one of the local tai-pans... )

    Of course, if you have a strong company that gives you regular dividends, you're not really going to want to share that with anyone else.

    Again... regarding oil companies... not really a problem with the law, per se... just the implementation.

    As for whether all public utilities shoudl be publically listed... I don't know. Why doesn't the government just buy shares in all of the utilities and share the information with the public?

    Reminds me of the time when the government accused us schools of profiteering and tried to force a tuition fee cap. Durh... you open a business and you can't make profit from it? And now, when they removed support from some of the state-run higher education institutions... it turns out that to survive, they have to charge the same price as some private schools (and more than others)... whoops.

    But it should put to a rest all the political grandstanding and bickering between the government and the corporations.

    The problem with other utilities is that there's no choice in the matter. Unlike the current fuel market, where competition forces pricing strategy into the fore, when you live in Manila, you don't really have a choice of utilities... except maybe in terms of telephone service.

    In this case, it may be a good idea... but enforcing transparency laws for public utilities would be much simpler than forcing them to issue stocks.
    Last edited by niky; October 29th, 2008 at 04:26 PM.

    Ang pagbalik ng comeback...

  10. Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    14,181
    #10
    My personal take is if you don't need the money why go public? Going public only means now there are people who can interfere in how you wanna run the company. But going public is one effective way to raise money which goes back to my first question if you don't need it why bother? Listing also costs money.

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Utilities Should be Publicly-Listed