What it took to save ABS-CBN

Last week gave this live soap opera of a Lopez family saga some of its most dramatic episodes yet. Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III, a cousin who had walked away from the empire, sold his stake in it to rescue the business he still considered his family’s mission. His cousin, Federico “Piki” Lopez, welcomed Ramon Ang’s arrival as the family’s new business partner as a step toward peace, then watched his own branch get left out of the ABS-CBN rescue two days later. And by week’s end, saving that business meant letting outsiders farther inside the house. Here’s how it happened. On August 10, Gabby Lopez announced that Crème Investment Corporation (Crème), the holding company of his branch of the family, had sold its entire 25.68% stake in Lopez Inc. to businessman Ramon Ang. Lopez Inc. sits at the top of the family conglomerate, with interests that reach into First Philippine Holdings and First Gen in energy, Rockwell Land in property, First Balfour in construction and infrastructure, and, at the top of most family member’s affections, ABS-CBN. The story that day read like an exit. Gabby’s branch had let go of the one entity that gave it a piece of practically everything the Lopez name still touched. He gave family peace as one reason: “The first is my family,” he said. “This dispute has not been good for any of us, or for the people who work in our companies. This allows us to take a step towards the restoration of family peace.” But Gabby gave a second reason that, in hindsight, may have been more revealing. The sale, he said, would allow him to “channel our family’s resources into businesses aligned with our personal mission.” “We will announce more on this in due time.” Due time turned out to be two days. On August 12, three of the four Lopez family branches announced that they would put P2.2 billion of their personal resources into ABS-CBN, the media company Gabby’s grandfather built and his father rebuilt from nothing after Marcos shut it down in 1972. And it is the business around which much of the family’s war had revolved in the first place. The three — Crème Investment Corporation, Gabby’s own branch, Mantes Corporation, and Presta Holdings Company Inc. — together held the 71% “majority” stake in Lopez Inc. before Crème sold out to Ang. Ang’s buying price was never disclosed, though unconfirmed figures have circulated informally: all of Lopez Inc. worth at around P45 billion, and Crème’s 25.68% at roughly P11 billion. That likely puts the P2.2 billion going into ABS-CBN is a small slice of what Crème received, easily covered by Gabby’s own words: redirecting the family’s resources toward its “personal mission.” What had looked like a cash-out on August 10 looked, 48 hours later, more like a reallocation, out of the parent that owns a piece of everything, and back into the one piece Gabby appears most determined to preserve. His father, Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr., built ABS-CBN’s identity around a corporate mission bigger than the company itself: “In the Service of the Filipino.” Gabby’s language was more personal, but recognizably descended from the same idea. He was redirecting his family’s resources toward its “personal mission.” The mission survived, but the old machinery for financing it did not. In April, amid the fight over funding, ABS-CBN’s own statement quoted Gabby’s father, the man who rebuilt the network after martial law: “Profit alone is not enough reason to go into business. But if we serve our people, then I think that our growth and success will follow. If we take care of our people, they will take care of us. That’s the kind of culture a company should have.” The family pot For months, one question had sat underneath much of the Lopez family fight: who controls the family pot? One of the disputes between Gabby and his cousin Piki was whether Lopez Inc., the private holding company then jointly owned by four family branches, should put roughly P2 billion into ABS-CBN. Piki opposed it, with his camp citing unresolved audit findings and other questions it said should be answered before more family money went into the media company. ABS-CBN disputed allegations of financial impropriety. The disagreement became one of several grievances that led the majority bloc to vote Piki out as Lopez Inc. president in February, a removal that a Mandaluyong court subsequently restrained. By August, Gabby’s side had found another answer to the problem. It did not have to win the fight over the family pot. It could stop needing the pot. The August 12 announcement came not from Lopez Inc. but from Crème, Mantes and Presta, which committed their own money directly to ABS-CBN. They described themselves, notably, as the “Lopez family majority.” That description had acquired a new meaning: Crème had just sold its entire Lopez Inc. stake to Ang. It was no longer part of an ownership majority inside the parent holding company. Yet Crème, Mantes, and Presta continued to identify themselves as a majority bloc around ABS-CBN. Ownership of Lopez Inc. and stewardship of ABS-CBN, two things that had been fused throughout the family dispute, were beginning to come apart. There was another bit of theater in the sequence. On August 10, Piki had warmly welcomed Ang’s entry into Lopez Inc. “It’s a great step toward resolving issues that have affected our family as well as our businesses,” Piki said, adding that Ang’s arrival “can only be good for everyone.” Ang, for his part, said he had known the Lopezes for decades, “not one branch of it, but all of them,” and intended to remain a friend to each. Two days later, however, Croslo, Piki’s family branch, was not among the three branches putting P2.2 billion of personal money into ABS-CBN. Whatever peace Ang’s arrival might eventually bring, it had not yet reunited the four branches around the next money decision. And ABS-CBN badly needed one. Why ABS-CBN needs saving This is the financial autopsy, the mechanics behind the truce. The “saving” had been urgent. On March 31, ABS-CBN had P9.85 billion in current assets against P23.3 billion in current liabilities, leaving negative working capital of about P13.5 billion. ABS-CBN’s bank debt had been living under the shadow of what its own financial statements call the “Franchise Expiration Default” since the House of Representatives denied ABS-CBN a new broadcast franchise in 2020. The company and its creditor banks had repeatedly extended waivers and “standstill” arrangements while trying to reach a longer-term solution. Its first-quarter filing disclosed that a P5-billion Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) loan that matured in March 2025 had been extended several times, most recently to May 31, 2026. A P4.75-billion UnionBank loan had likewise been extended, most recently to June 30. Those dates have since passed, making the present status of those facilities, and whether further extensions or refinancing arrangements have been reached, one of the important questions left by the rescue. Six years without its own broadcast franchise had already done enormous damage. ABS-CBN accumulated about P45.5 billion in losses from 2020 through 2025, turning what had been a P13.8-billion retained-earnings surplus into a deficit of roughly P6 billion. The first quarter of 2026 brought another P813-million consolidated net loss, while current liabilities continued to tower over current assets. Both its 2025 annual report and first-quarter 2026 filing carried the accounting warning that the conditions “indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern.” Behind those numbers were people who had been waiting years to be paid. The loss of the franchise led ABS-CBN to retrench nearly 6,000 employees in 2020, putting severe pressure on its retirement fund. Most of the 68 retirees who later became the subject of this bitter family dispute over alleged preferential treatment had received only partial or no retirement benefits and agreed to defer payment until the company’s finances improved. The three family branches specifically cited obligations to long-serving employees and ABS-CBN’s recovery plans when they announced their P2.2-billion commitment. The money wasn’t merely about saving a family heirloom. There were bills waiting behind it. The war over the fix The original proposal to put family money into ABS-CBN became one front in a much larger Lopez war. Piki’s camp argued that questions about ABS-CBN’s finances had to be answered first. His cousins pushed back. By May, Piki had asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to examine the network’s finances and related-party transactions and sought an independent management committee and forensic audit. ABS-CBN disputed allegations made against it, while saying in its Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) disclosures that the complaints were not expected to materially affect its operations. Elsewhere in the empire, the other side was turning to regulators too. In July, the PSE sanctioned First Gen for disclosure violations related to provisions in its transactions with Prime Infrastructure, including change-of-control clauses that became material because of the Lopez family dispute (See story below). The details differ and the allegations remain contested, but the larger pattern was unmistakable: a family argument that began inside a private holding company had spread into courts, regulators and listed companies. What it actually took Strip away the family rhetoric and the announced P6-billion rescue package has three pieces: Crème, Mantes and Presta are putting in an aggregate P2.2 billion a company called I&C Holdings Corp. is putting in P3.5 billion Lopez Inc. itself is putting in P300 million. That last P300 million contains one of the more curious details of the deal. Piki’s branch, Croslo, is absent from the P2.2-billion personal commitment. But Lopez Inc., the parent company Piki still heads because of the court injunction, is nevertheless participating in the same capital raise. ABS-CBN’s disclosures do not say whether the P300-million investment required a Lopez Inc. board vote. When such a vote might have occurred, how Piki voted if there was one, or whether he participated in the decision at all. That leaves an intriguing question: what changed between the earlier fight over putting P2 billion Lopez Inc. money into ABS-CBN and the P300-million subscription it is now making? But even that P300 million is overshadowed by another number: P3.5 billion. The biggest check in the rescue isn’t coming from a Lopez. The outsider inside ABS-CBN I&C Holdings was practically unknown in Philippine media before last week. ABS-CBN describes it as a “100% Philippine-owned private investment holding company that invests for long-term company turn-around.” I&C explained its own reasoning in a separate statement: “ABS-CBN has built valuable brands, intellectual property, content and deep relationships with Filipino audiences in the Philippines and overseas,” adding that it believes the company “could build a sustainable business and generate long-term value if it is provided with capital support.” Beyond that, the public record remains remarkably thin. ABS-CBN’s disclosures do not identify I&C’s ultimate beneficial owners, any previous history it has in Philippine media, or what governance rights may accompany an investment larger than those of all the Lopez contributors combined. That matters because this is not simply rescue money. It is equity. On August 14, after a Philippine Stock Exchange query sought more details, ABS-CBN disclosed that the P6-billion transaction would involve the issuance of 1,643,835,616 new common shares. There are only 899,848,111 common shares outstanding. ABS-CBN is therefore proposing to nearly triple its common-share count to survive. The transaction requires an increase in authorized capital stock and still needs the necessary stockholder and SEC approvals before the new capitalization can take full effect. It also means that the company being rescued will emerge with an ownership structure dramatically different from the one that entered the week. The new ownership structure ABS-CBN has not yet disclosed how the 1.644 billion new common shares will be divided among I&C, the three family companies and Lopez Inc. But the disclosed numbers allow an indicative picture. Divide P6 billion by 1.6438 billion new shares and the implied average subscription price works out to roughly P3.65 per share, which happens to match ABS-CBN’s closing market price on August 11, the last trading day before the subscription agreements were signed. If, and this is an important if, all subscribers receive shares at that same implied price, I&C’s P3.5 billion would translate into roughly 959 million new common shares, or about 37.7% of ABS-CBN’s enlarged common-share base. The combined P2.2 billion from Crème, Mantes, and Presta would translate into about 603 million shares, or roughly 23.7%. Lopez Inc.’s existing 55.82% common stake, plus the shares corresponding to its new P300-million investment, would fall to roughly 23% of the enlarged common-share base. On that indicative calculation, I&C would emerge as the largest single holder of ABS-CBN common shares. That is not the same thing as saying it would control ABS-CBN. Add up every Lopez-connected holder, Lopez Inc., ABS-CBN Holdings Corp., and the three personally-invested branches, Crème, Mantes, and Presta, and the family still holds the biggest position in the company as a group. In terms of common shares only, which determine how much share each has of the earnings of ABS-CBN, this is the estimated ranking by size: Lopez family, combined (Lopez Inc. + ABS-CBN Holdings + Crème, Mantes, Presta): ~1.28 billion shares, ~50.3% I&C Holdings: 958.9 million shares, 37.7% Public float and other holders: 215.1 million shares, 8.5% LL Holdings: 90 million shares, 3.5% The Lopez family remains the largest shareholder bloc. But I&C is the largest single shareholder. Both are true, and the gap between them is what brings the next question: will the family’s pieces still vote as one? There is an important second layer to the ownership structure: Lopez Inc. also owns 987,130,246 of ABS-CBN’s one billion preferred shares, and those shares carry voting rights, which translates to how much control one has in the board when it makes decisions about policy and strategy. How those preferred shares vote relative to common shares on the election of directors and other corporate matters, and what governance rights I&C will receive under the new investment, will determine whether I&C’s large common stake translates into a similarly large say over how ABS-CBN is run. Those details have not yet been publicly disclosed. So the more consequential question isn’t merely how much of ABS-CBN I&C will own. It is what its billions buy besides shares: board seats, veto or consent rights over major transactions, participation in management, reserved matters requiring its approval, or simply the rights of a large common shareholder. Until the agreements and governance arrangements are disclosed, the answer remains unknown. HolderShares before (Dec 31, 2025)% beforeShares after ₱6B raise (indicative)% after (indicative)Lopez Inc.502,256,30855.82%584,448,08922.98%ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.92,470,67010.28%92,470,6703.63%Lopez Holdings Corp.holds economic interest via PDRs on Lopez Inc.’s shares, 0% direct voting)0%00%I&C Holdings Corp.00%958,904,11037.69%Crème, Mantes, Presta (new, personal)00%602,739,72623.70%LL Holdings90,000,30010.00%90,000,3003.54%Rest of public float and others215,120,83323.91%215,120,8338.46%Total899,848,111100%2,543,683,727100% Note: Post-transaction holdings are estimates based on an implied uniform subscription price of approximately P3.65 per new common share. ABS-CBN has disclosed the aggregate number of new shares and each subscriber’s peso commitment, but has not yet disclosed the final share allocation per subscriber. The table covers common shares only and does not reflect Lopez Inc.’s preferred-share holdings or their voting effect. There was already another outsider in ABS-CBN before I&C arrived. LL Holdings, the investment vehicle of Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste, began buying into ABS-CBN in 2024, disclosing an 8.5% stake, and grew that position to the 10% recorded in the company’s 2025 filings, the 10th largest shareholder before this fund raising. He’s the son of Senator Loren Legarda, a former ABS-CBN news anchor who recused herself from the 2020 franchise-renewal vote over a conflict of interest, which gives his stake a family echo of its own, a different one from Gabby’s: he bought in years after the vote that might have saved the network, not instead of it. But there is an important difference. Leviste bought into an existing ABS-CBN. I&C is being invited directly into the capitalization of the company as part of the financing meant to give it another chance. And it isn’t the only outsider who entered the Lopez story last week. Ramon Ang came in from the top; I&C came in directly at ABS-CBN. One provided an exit for Gabby’s branch from Lopez Inc. The other provided more than half the new equity being raised by the media company that Gabby’s branch chose to keep supporting. The old Lopez corporate architecture concentrated the family’s businesses and their control through layers of holding companies, and the transactions announced last week begin to pull those things apart: ownership of the empire can now be different from stewardship of the legacy, and preserving the legacy may require sharing it. Rescue is one job, reinvention is another The P6 billion buys ABS-CBN time, but it does not by itself answer what ABS-CBN is supposed to become. The company has spent the years since losing its franchise trying to build a business that does not depend on owning a free-to-air broadcast network. It produces and licenses content, distributes through partners such as TV5, GMA, Cignal, and ALLTV, and sells to streaming platforms and audiences abroad. There are signs that parts of that reinvention work. ABS-CBN’s Content Production and Distribution segment generated P12.59 billion in revenue in 2025, up 5%, while its recurring net loss narrowed. Direct-to-consumer revenue reached P1.03 billion, and its enormous digital audience remains an asset few Philippine media companies can match. But the segment is still losing money. That makes the rescue something more than money for old obligations. It is also capital for a wager: that the brands, intellectual property, talent, audience and distribution relationships left after the franchise loss can eventually become a sustainable media business. I&C is putting 3.5 billion behind that wager. And that may be the biggest change of all. For decades, ABS-CBN was simultaneously a business, a Lopez family institution, and perhaps the family’s most recognizable public legacy. The rescue may preserve the first two only by changing the terms of the third. The Lopezes spent months fighting over who had the authority to put more family money into ABS-CBN. Gabby’s side eventually found a way around the fight: use personal money, bring in outside capital, and accept a radically different ownership structure in exchange for giving the wounded ABS-CBN another chance. ABS-CBN may now have found the capital it urgently needed. What the Lopezes had to give up for it, and how much say the newcomers bought with their billions, is only beginning to become clear. – Rappler.com Lala Rimando wrote about Philippine business, and managed newsrooms, including Newsbreak, ABS-CBN, Rappler, and Forbes, for over 25 years. She’s now based in La Union, taking care of her mom with dementia, and working on the multimedia biography of the late John Gokongwei. Below are some of the author’s articles on the Lopez family saga: Part 1 | Debt, discipline, and daring: Inside the Lopez Group’s high-risk bets Part 2 | The Lopezes, presidents, and the cost of dissent Part 3 | Lopez vs Lopez: The secrecy fight behind the Razon power deals Who writes the Lopez story? How lawyers, headlines, and ABS-CBN shape a family war EXCLUSIVE: Inside Piki Lopez’s town hall as cousins rally for ABS-CBN How to make yourself very expensive to fire: The Lopez cousins’ war First Gen sat on a P23.5-billion Lopez clause for 60 days, then the family went to war When the ASM has no election: What the Lopez family dispute means for every investor From ‘king’ to ‘steward’: How Piki Lopez answered the Lopez family rift question The business case of the Lopez-Razon gas and hydro deals