Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said Tuesday the consortium of companies that offers to take the company private increased the tender offer price by 12 percent to P5.20 from P4.63 per share.
The consortium said in a joint statement the P5.20 is “the best and final” offer price to minority investors, representing a 37-percent premium over the one-year volume weighted average price of the company’s common shares.
It also marks a P0.10 premium over the highest end of the range provided by the independent financial adviser.
The consortium will spend about P54.8 billion, at P5.20 per share, to buy out the remaining shares held by minority shareholders of MPIC.
The tender offer price also values MPIC at P149.2 billion or $2.7 billion in equity value.
MPIC said it would call a special stockholders meeting on Aug. 8 to seek shareholders’ approval on the planned voluntary delisting from the Philippine Stock Exchange.
A consortium consisting of Metro Pacific Holdings Inc., GT Capital Holdings Inc., Mit-Pacific Infrastructure Holdings Inc. and MIG Holdings Inc., offered in April this year to buy out the shares held by minority investors in MPIC.
“We regard this new offer as the best and final price the bidders are able to deliver to MPIC’s minority shareholders,” said First Pacific executive director Christopher Young.
“Due to the transaction timetable, approvals, and regulatory requirements of the entire process across multiple jurisdictions, there will be no further opportunity to adjust the price,” he said.
The consortium said MPIC has historically traded at a discount to the underlying value of its assets with a one-year volume weighted average price of P3.80 per share.
The consortium hired an independent financial advisor, which produced a report with a valuation range of P3.37 to P5.10 per share, to comply with the voluntary delisting rules.
“Following a period of consultation in the wake of the earlier tender offer announcement, the bidders feel that the raised tender offer price provides an improved path to minority shareholders to exit their positions at a sizable premium to market price,” the consortium said.
The Philippine Stock Exchange immediately suspended the trading of MPIC shares.
COL Financial research head April Lee Tan said the P5.20 tender offer price is still too low.
“The tender offer price represents a 48-percent discount to our net asset value for MPIC and 41-percent discount to our fair value estimate for the stock,” Tan said.
“Nevertheless for shareholders who could not afford to risk their investment getting delisted, we advise either selling or subscribing to tender offer,” Tan said.
