San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. reduced the size of its planned share sale to around P49.68 billion from the original estimate of P142 billion after lowering the offering price and number of shares to be sold amid weak market conditions.
San Miguel president and chief executive Ramon Ang said the company was pushing through with the planned share sale in order to comply with the 10-percent minimum public ownership requirement of the Philippine Stock Exchange.
“It is definitely a go,” Ang said.
SMFB set a new price range of P85 to P95 per share from the original offer price of up to P140 apiece based on the original filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, .
The company now plans to sell up to 522.96 million shares from the initial target of up to 1.0MFB will raise between P49.68 billion and P44.45 billion in proceeds from the share sale.
Ang said the company would be able to comply with the 10-percent minimum public float requirement on listed companies based on the investors who signified their interest to buy SMFB shares.
“We are sure to comply with the minimum public ownership requirement. So we are definitely going out,” Ang said.
“Prices are lower because of strong US economy which is bringing out all money, he said.
SMFB will set the final offer price on Oct 25.
Despite the reduced size, the SMFB deal would still be the largest equity transaction in the local bourse, surpassing the P38-billion share offer of taipan Lucio Tan’s LT Group Inc. in 2013.
SMFB said parent San Miguel Corp. would use the entire proceeds from the offer to fund investments in the San Miguel Group.
SMFB hired JP Morgan Securities Plc, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte., UBS AG Singapore, Goldman Sachs (Sinagpore) and Duetsche Bank as the international book runners.
BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. are the local underwriters.
SMFB posted a consolidated net income of P15.4 billion in the first six months of 2018, up 20 percent year-on-year.
First-half consolidated revenues hit P137.4 billion, up 15 percent from a year ago, while operating income climbed 20 percent to P22.9 billion.
