Phoenix Petroleum still too broke to pay dividends on prefs

Phoenix Petroleum [PNX suspended] [link] was asked by regulators to provide an update on its non-payment of dividends. In its response, PNX said that there’s been “no significant change in the financial position of [PNX]”, and that PNX has “no unappropriated retained earnings” from which to make dividend payments. PNX said that it is “focused on restructuring its debts or still negotiating for its Liability Management Exercise with [its] creditors while managing its current resources internally in order to increase working capital.” PNX is currently owned by the failed tycoon, Dennis Uy. As of its last Quarterly Report in Q3, PNX was losing approximately P1.6 billion per quarter. PNX’s stock price is at levels that have not been seen since before Rodrigo Duterte was elected president in 2016. Dennis Uy was one of Rodrigo Duterte’s top campaign donors.

MB BOTTOM-LINE:  It really is a dust-to-dust 10-year chart for PNX’s stock price. From the time Durterte took office in 2016, it only took 18 months for the stock price to double. PNX maintained that level for roughly four years--even through Duterte’s disastrous handling of COVID--but the stock fell off a cliff starting in August 2021 and it hasn’t yet reached the bottom. Well, it got suspended last May so we don’t know where it would trade now, but I can’t imagine it would be any better. In fact, by the PSE’s rules, it should have been involuntarily delisted months ago. To be honest, though, I’m really not sure what these inquiries are meant to accomplish, other than to rub PNX’s nose in the turd it dropped on the PSE’s rug. Everybody knows PNX has no retained earnings to pay dividends.

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