To block potential "hostile" takeovers, the Lopez Group said Friday it transferred over 245 million shares of stock in First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC) to an unlisted holding company.

FPHC told the Philippine Stock Exchange that the shares, which represent a 43.08 percent stake in FPHC, were transferred from Benpres Holdings Corp. to Lopez Inc. via a deed of assignment last March 19.

Lopez Inc. is the private holding firm of the Lopez family and the parent of Benpres. The transfer effectively gave Lopez Inc. the voting rights over the shares.
 
The voting rights give the private holding firm a more direct control over the shares. Late last year, Benpres and FPHC only had an agreement that made FPHC the voting trustee of Benpres.
 
FPHC then said the voting trust agreement was an effort "to protect legitimate creditors and shareholders" of the Lopez firms "against groups with hostile or inimical interest that would act against creating or furthering shareholder values."

With the recent transaction, the single biggest block in FPHC is now directly owned by Lopez Inc., not by publicly listed Benpres.

FPHC owns the Lopez Group's power generation and distribution businesses through First Gen Corp. and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), while Benpres now only holds the Lopez family's investments in television giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., real estate developer Rockwell Land Inc., telecoms firm Bayan Telecommunications, and Sky Cable.

The Lopez family made this ownership re-alignment after a number of the companies they control have been subject of takeover attempts.

In 2008, state pension fund Government Service Insurance System made a bid to wrestle control of Meralco while early this year, diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. was rumored to have planned to do the same. This led the Lopez family to forge an alliance with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., a unit of Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co. Ltd. and headed by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

First Pacific, through another subsidiary Metro Pacific Investments Corp., earlier acquired the Lopez Group's water utility, Maynilad Water Services Inc., and tollroad business, the North Luzon Expressway.

abs-cbnNEWS.com is the online news department of ABS-CBN Interactive Inc., a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. ABS-CBN is part of the Lopez Group of Companies.