Eagle Cement Corp., the country’s fourth largest cement company owned by businessman Ramon Ang, plans to raise up to P9.2 billion from an initial public offering in May.
Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Eagle Cement would sell up to 575 million common shares, at an offer price of up to P16 apiece.
Existing shareholders will sell 500 million shares, with an option to dispose of another 75 million shares in case of strong demand.
After the IPO, Eagle Cement is expected to have a public ownership of 11.5 percent and a market capitalization of P80 billion.
Net proceeds from the maiden share offering will be used to finance the construction of a P12.5-billion cement plant in Cebu, documents showed.
The proposed plant will have a capacity of 2 million metric tons. Construction is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2017, in line with the completion target of 2020.
Eagle Cement acquired mineral rights over a 50-hectare property in Cebu from APC Group Inc. in November. It also purchased South Western Cement Corp., a cement manufacturing company with mineral rights over an 810-hectare property in Cebu.
Eagle Cement is building a third production line within its facility in Bulacan. The expansion, up for completion by 2018, will increase the company’s cement production capacity by 2 million MT.
This will bring the company’s total production capacity to 7.1 million MT, making it one of the leading cement companies in the country.
Eagle Cement is set to become the third cement company listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange. The two others are Holcim Philippines Inc. and Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc., which conducted an IPO in 2016.
Cement companies are currently expanding their production capacities on expected increase in demand for construction materials, as the Duterte administration plans to hike government spending for big ticket infrastructure projects.
