Puregold Price Club, Inc., the supermarket chain owned by billionaire Lucio Co., successfully raised P4.69 billion through an overnight placement of shares.
Puregold said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it sold approximately 104 million shares at P45 apiece, a 6.8-percent discount to the stock’s closing price of P48.40 on Tuesday.
“Use of proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, capital expenditure, and potential acquisitions,” Puregold said.
The shares account for 3.8 percent of Puregold’s total issued and outstanding capital stock.
Co, who was the sole selling shareholder, also signed an agreement to purchase the same number of shares and at the same price.
Deutsche Bank AG acted as the placing agent for the transaction.
The Puregold Group as of end September 2018 had 397 stores nationwide. These include 345 Puregold stores, 16 S&R membership shopping warehouses and 36 S&R New York Style QSR outlets.
Puregold posted a net income of P4.618 billion in the first nine months of 2018, up 18 percent from P3.899 billion year-on-year. The higher profit was driven by a 14-percent rise in system-wide net sales to P99.818 billion from P87.564 billion a year ago.
The company attributed the strong performance to sustained same store sales growth during the nine-month period, which stood at 5.8 percent in Puregold stores and 8.8 percent in S&R outlets.
Income from operations rose P6.23 billion in first nine months of 2018, up 10 percent from P5.65 billion on year.
Puregold expects consolidated net sales to increase 12 percent to 14 percent for the full year of 2018 from an initial guidance of 7 percent to 9 percent.
Same store sales growth guidance for Puregold and S&R for 2018 is also projected to go up 4 percent to 6 percent in 2018.
The company has been opening 25 stores annually since its initial public offering in 2011.
Puregold in 2018 earmarked P3.65 billion in capital expenditures for the opening of new stores.
Share price of Puregold has been on an upward trend since the start of the year as the company is expected to benefit from the lower inflation rate and sustained strong consumer spending.