ACEN Corp. is injecting P177.54 million to subsidiary ENEX Energy Corp. via a share subscription to help address the latter's negative equity.

In a filing on Tuesday, ACEN said that it had signed a subscription contract with ENEX for more than 177.5 million non-voting preferred shares at P1 each for a total of P177.45 million.

The non-voting preferred shares are "to be issued out of the increase of ENEX's authorized capital stock (ACS) and creation of the non-voting preferred shares," ACEN said.

It added that the subscription price would be used to fund the operational requirements of ENEX and its transaction costs for the creation and issuance of the preferred shares.

"Further, this transaction is meant to help ENEX address its negative stockholders' equity," ACEN said.

ENEX is a listed subsidiary of ACEN that is engaged in the business of oil and gas exploration and production, both domestically and internationally.

In a separate disclosure, ENEX said the shares would be issued "upon the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of the increase in its [authorized capital stock] and the creation of non-voting preferred shares."

ACEN shares fell 1.81 percent to P4.89 each, while ENEX's stock price dropped 0.85 percent to close at P4.69 on Tuesday.