Businessman Gregorio Araneta is wooing the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve his PHP2.01 billion (US$41.56 million) deal with the resigned PhilWeb Corp. chairman Roberto Ongpin.

PhilWeb assured the SEC that it is not trying to skirt a mandatory offer even if they wanted to do the tender offer after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the special block sale of Ongpin’s company shares to Gregorio Araneta Inc. (GAI).

“Mr. Araneta is pointing out that there have been cases that the sale transaction pushed through before the tender offer,” PhilWeb President Dennis Valdes told GMA News Online.

Two weeks ago, PhilWeb announced in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that Araneta and Ongpin agreed to a special block sale of Ongpin’s 53.76 percent stake or 771,651,896 shares in PhilWeb, with tag price of PHP2.01 billion (US$41.56 million) or PHP2.60 (US$0.0539).