Xurpas Inc., a leading Philippine technology company, successfully completed an accelerated overnight share placement to Philippine and international institutional investors with total proceeds of P2.5 billion.
Xurpas’ founders and its three largest shareholders each sold 51.8 million common shares representing 9 percent of the company’s outstanding and issued share capital.
The selling shareholders are Nico Jose Nolledo, Raymond Gerard Racaza and Fernando Jude Garcia.
The shares were priced at a 7.6 precent discount to Monday’s closing price of P17.32 per share and at an 11.9 percent discount to the 30-day average price of P18.15 per share. Xurpas dropped 0.4 percent Tuesday to P16.96
“Concurrent with the overnight placement, the selling shareholders subscribed to a total of 77.7 million Xurpas common shares, representing 4.3 percent of its enlarged total and issued share capital,” Xurpas said in a statement.
Each of the selling shareholders subscribed to 1.4 percent of the newly-issued common shares. Including the subscriptions, the selling shareholders own in aggregate 69 percent of Xurpas’ total issued and outstanding share capital.
The overnight placement increased Xurpas’ public float to 28 percent from 20 percent.
“By increasing the public float, this overnight placement increases liquidity in Xurpas’ stock and will allow a larger group of investors to invest in the company,” the company said.
Xurpas will receive total gross proceeds of P1.2 billion from the issuance of new shares to the selling shareholders, bringing in fresh capital to support its growth strategy and fund capital expenditure program and general corporate purposes.
“This fresh capital will give us the opportunity to strengthen our efforts to rapidly expand not only to other markets, but in the new business verticals that will drive our continued growth,” chief executive Nolledo said.
Xurpas’ core business and new acquisitions in 2015 helped fuel a 20-percent growth in core net income and a 135-percent surge in revenues to P921.22 million ($20.01 million), up from P392.22 million ($8.520 million) in 2014.
“The placement was met with strong demand from institutional investors, including Philippine [qualified institutional buyers], across Asia, Europe and the United States. SB Capital Investment Corporation and Decker & Co., LLC acted as Joint Global Coordinators and led the global selling syndicate in placing the Offer Shares with investors,” it said.
Xurpas was incorporated on November 26, 2001 as a technology company, specializing in the creation and development of digital products and services for mobile end users, as well as the creation, development and management of proprietary platforms for mobile operators.