The Philippines’ securities regulator has begun investigating a selloff in the shares of PLDT Inc before the company’s disclosure of budget overruns, the watchdog said on Monday.
Shares in PLDT slid by 19.4% on Monday, their largest single-day decline, to extend a 4.2% decline on Friday and wipe nearly 62 billion Philippine pesos ($1.12 billion) off the company’s market value.
The shares were driven lower by the company’s disclosure of budget overruns totalling 48 billion pesos over the past four years.
“The reported ‘budget overruns’, as well as the selloff in PLDT shares before the publicly listed company could make the official disclosure, are areas of concern,” the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.
“In this light, the SEC has immediately commenced an inquiry into the matter.”
PLDT, which is partly owned by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc and Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co, declined to provide immediate comment and said there would be a further announcement on Tuesday.
Reuters