Nickel miner Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. scaled down the size of its planned share sale to P2 billion from the previous target of P31 billion.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved GFNI’s plan to sell 250 million primary shares at an offer price of up to P8.10 apiece. Share price of the mining firm closed at 2.58 Tuesday.
Net proceeds from the follow-on offering will be used to refinance maturing debt and fund working capital requirements.
Religare is the sole global coordinator while Philippine Commercial Capital Inc. is the domestic underwriter. Up to 200 million shares will be sold to overseas investors while the remaining 50 million will be alloted to domestic investors.
GFNI president Dante Bravo said in a text message the company would push through with the planned share sale. The nickel mining firm, formerly Southeast Asia Cement Holdings Inc., disclosed a plan in 2014 to raise up to P31.03 billion involving 7.079 billion shares at P4.38 apiece.
It later reduced the size of the offering to P21 billion by lowering the number of offer shares to 4.98 billion and maintaining the maximum offer price of P4.38 apiece. The follow-on offering was deferred due to weak metal prices.
Global Ferronickel signed in October last year a cooperation agreement with China state-owned Baiyin Nonferrous Group Co. Ltd. for the possible construction of a $700-million stainless steel plant in the Philippines with an annual capacity of one million tons using lower grade nickel ore sourced in the country.
Global Ferronickel is the second largest nickel producer in the Philippines and the largest single lateritic mine exporter in the world. It operates a mine in Cagdianao, Surigao del Norte.