The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday approved the P17.5-billion initial public offering of fruit grower and canner Del Monte Philippines Inc., according to commission secretary Armando Pan Jr.
Documents filed with the SEC showed DMPI, the local unit of listed Del Monte Pacific Ltd., would sell 587.437 million secondary shares at for up to P29.88 apiece.
The offer shares represent 21 percent of the company’s outstanding capital stock.
DMPI said the shares would be sold by shareholder Central American Resources Inc. by way of secondary offering. Cari is a wholly- owned subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Resources Ltd. which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of DMPL.
Net proceeds from the offering will be used to partially prepay or repay certain facilities extended by DMPL and to refinance certain financial obligation of the DMPL group to significantly reduce its leverage position, documents showed.
BDO Unibank Inc. is the issue manager, sole global coordinator and bookrunner for the offering.
Filings showed that 70 percent of the offer shares would be sold to domestic investors and the remaining 30 percent to foreign institutional and retail investors.
The company originally planned to conduct the IPO in April, but it was deferred to give way to the big ticket rights offering of two banks.
DMPI is now looking at June for the planned share sale.
DMPI produces and distributes food and beverage products in the Philippines under the Del Monte brand, such as fruit juices and juice drinks, packaged pineapple and mixed fruit, various tomato, spaghetti sauces and culinary mixes. It also exports these products under other brands.
The company operates a 25,000-hectare pineapple plantation in Bukidnon and runs a processing facility with annual capacity of 700,000 tons.
DMPI generated P26.7 billion in revenues in the fiscal year 2017. It is majority owned by NutriAsia Pacific Ltd. and Bluebell Group Holdings Limited of the Campos family.