PLDT faces class-action lawsuit from US shareholder

PLDT Inc. confirmed on February 14 that a US shareholder had filed a class-action lawsuit against the company on February 6 in the federal district court in the Central District of California.

According to a report from BusinessWorld, the news broke after the company had disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that a complaint had been filed by PLDT securities holder Sophia Olsson against PLDT.

The complaint, which can be found on Court Listener, indicates that the complaint is for PLDT’s “violations of the Federal Securities Laws”

Olsson alleged in her complaint that the defendants had made “Materially False and Misleading Statements” from 2019-2022.

Included in the list of defendants, aside from PLDT Inc., is Manuel V. Pangilinan, Alfred S. Panlilio, Annabelle L. Chua, Marilyn A. Victorio-Aquino, Abner Tito L. Alberto, Gil Samson D. Garcia, Ma. Lourdes, C. Rausa-Chan, Florentino D. Mabasa Jr., and June Cheryl A. Cabal-Revilla.

According to the complaint, the company’s “wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares, Plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages.”

The wrongful acts alleged in the complaint refer to PLDT’s failure to address budget overruns from 2019-2022, which inevitably caused the depreciation of the price of PLDT shares.