PAL Holdings Resumes Public Trading on March 28

25 March 2022

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) parent company PAL Holdings is slated to return to public trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Monday, after a nine-month absence.

The Philippine Stock Exchange said in a notice that PAL Holdings Inc. would resume trading on March 28 this year after the company refiled its 2020 annual report with the requisite disclaimer-free opinion from independent auditor SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV).

The refiling reflected the recent and most significant developments, which includes new investments from major stockholders and PAL’s exit from US Chapter 11 proceedings in December last year that allowed it to slash huge debts, thus putting it in a better financial position to continue business as usual.

Both the initial and refiled 2020 attached auditor’s report were signed by the same SGV partner, Catherine Lopez.

Lopez—who refused to even render an opinion last year due to PAL’s mounting losses, unpaid debts and prospective restructuring plans—provided the required “unqualified” opinion in the refiled version.

That basically means the auditor found no reason to doubt any of PAL Holdings’ financial details in the refiled report. More importantly for the airline, that was all the PSE needed to lift PAL Holdings’ June 18, 2021 suspension and continue trading next week.