Joining Gozon at today’s ceremonial ringing of the Opening Bell are GMA’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Gilberto R. Duavit, Jr, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Felipe S. Yalong, and independent members of the Board of Directors, former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and Dr Jaime Laya.
According to Gozon, “We are very thankful that we have the support of both the viewing public, as evidenced by our steady win in the ratings, and the investors, seeing as we have reached our fifth year as a listed company with the current price of our share higher than the IPO price.”
In July 2007, GMA issued 91.346 million common shares, along with a special purpose vehicle, the GMA Holdings Inc, with 822.115 million PDRs. Gozon recalls, “When we went public in 2007, our first day of trading coincided with a downward trend at the global market. But we have proved resilient, surviving the many ups and downs of the market.”
In fact, the Kapuso Network has been giving cash dividends to stockholders every year, even before it joined the stock exchange – a feat that not all listed companies can claim. In May this year, the company released cash dividends amounting to P1.944 billion at P0.40 per share, equivalent to 114 percent of its full 2011 net income.
Gozon explains, “We work very hard to stay on top of our game, both for our audience and our investors. We owe it to the investing public to give them back their investment, plus a little bit more.”
Investor confidence in the company has not waned, seeing as it has been registering a steady performance in the market. GMA’s trading symbol is GMA7 for the Common shares and GMAP for the PDRs.
The Philippine Stock Exchange commemorates the 5th, 10th, 20th, 25th and 50th years of listing of various companies as a way to generate more awareness about the importance of the stock market.
