12 family members vote to oust Piki Lopez as president of Lopez Inc.
Twelve members of the Lopez family have voted to remove Frederico "Piki" Lopez as president of Lopez Inc.
Three branches of the Lopez family majority (71%) issued a joint statement on April 27 via ABS-CBN about the ouster, which stated that they "lost [their] trust and confidence" in Piki.
They accused their cousin of lacking transparency and timely disclosures on decisions that have an impact on the conglomerate.
"We were neither informed nor consulted about the P50 billion sale of 60% of First Gen's natural gas business to Prime Infrastructure last November. Again, the same happened this April, when First Gen acquired a 33% stake in Prime's hydropower business for P62 billion," the 12 members said.
"Exclusing us from such significant decisions was a clear failure in Piki's fiduciary responsibility and a circumvention of corporate governance."
They also said they discovered two "poison pills" in the deals, which stated that if Piki and his designates are removed from their management roles, First Gen will pay Prime P24 billion and allow the latter to buy out the Lopez company from gas and hydropower deals at a 25% discount, which would lead to a P24 billion loss, according to a Philippine STAR report.
"Through the poison pills, Piki secured his position as chairman and CEO and secured management control of the company, effectively making him indispensable because the cost of removing him, even for non-performance, would be too great," the family members wrote.
"It was only ethical that Piki should not have asked for or accepted the poison pill without consulting the majority stakeholders."
First Gen has said that the "poison pill" was part of the agreements with Prime Infra.
Following the alleged incidents, the 12 signatory members—Maria Cristina Rosario Lopez Grassi, Roberta Pilar Lopez Feliciano, Maria Margarita Lopez Lichauco, Maria Eugenia Psinakis Brown, Eugenio L. Lopez III, Rafael L. Lopez, Ernesto Miguel L. Lopez, Manuel L. Lopez Jr., Ramon Javier L. Lopez, Miguel L. Lopez, Michael Lopez Psinakis, and Martin L. Lopez—voted to remove Piki as president.
"Each of us is confirming that we authorized our family’s representative on the board to vote to remove Piki as president. This wasn’t an easy decision for us. And no, this wasn’t led by a single person or faction of the family. From the start, keeping our families intact and unscathed was of primary importance. It was never our intention to go down this path or to proceed as has unfolded," they said.
A source previously told the STAR that the majority is gearing up to file several cases against Piki and First Gen officers, including a request for a subpoena for the investment agreements with Prime Infra.
In March, Piki sued his cousins, who are directors of Lopez Inc., for allegedly illegally ousting him as president of the company. The situation eased back to the status quo following a court order.
In a case filed by Piki, he said that events surrounding his removal came after he opposed the use of Lopez Inc.'s reserve funds to infuse capital into ABS-CBN.
Piki also said that he did not disclose First Gen's transactions before the public announcement, as it would have violated the Securities Regulation Code on "insider tipping."