SEC lifts suspension of Dominion Holdings’ registration

MANILA, Philippines – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has lifted the suspension of the registration statement of Dominion Holdings Inc. (DHI), which enabled the Sy-led investment holding company to register as a publicly traded company.

In a disclosure to the local stock exchange, DHI (formerly BDO Leasing and Finance Inc.) stated that it received an order from the SEC on July 1 lifting the stay order issued on February 13, 2020.

The order, signed by Oliver Leonardo, Director of the SEC-EIPD, was issued in response to DHI’s motion filed on June 28 to lift the stay order and restore the holding company’s registration statement and authorization to sell securities.

“Taking these premises into account, the suspension order dated February 13, 2020 is hereby lifted and the status of Dominion Holdings Inc. in the Commission’s securities registry is changed from ‘suspended’ to ‘registered,'” Leonardo said.

Leonardo said DHI filed its definitive amended registration statement on April 17 and its definitive updated amended registration statement on June 4.

DHI also published notice of the filing of the amended registration statement in two newspapers on May 4 and 6.

“Having filed the amended registration statement and paid the applicable filing fees and petition fees, DHI is now in compliance with the Commission’s order of February 13, 2020,” Leonardo said.

In January 2020, BDO and BDO Capital & Investments Corp. signed an agreement to sell their 88.5 percent majority stake in what was then BDOLF to a new group of investors including businessmen Luis Yu Jr., Victor Lim Jr. and Vittorio Lim.

Following the transaction, the SEC suspended BDOLF’s registration statement in February 2020 to protect investors in light of incomplete and inaccurate information regarding the sale of the majority interest.

The BDO subsidiary immediately requested a review of the suspension of its registration statement, which prohibited the company from publicly selling shares.

However, BDO stated that the agreement with the third-party purchasers terminated on January 24, 2021 due to non-satisfaction of closing conditions as a result of the SEC’s failure to grant BDOLF’s request for review of the SEC’s stay order.

The sale was part of the restructuring of the leasing business through BDOLF to optimize customers’ financing needs in light of new accounting rules for leasing transactions.

As a result of the restructuring, BDOLF’s assets were transferred to other entities of the parent bank, notably BDO Finance Corp., so that the entity remained a publicly traded holding company of BDO.

DHI’s profit rose 30 percent to P75.9 million in the first quarter from P58.3 million in the same period last year.