Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc., the local cement unit of Mexico’s Cemex S.A.B De C.V., is raising as much as P39.74 billion in what could be the largest initial public offering in the Philippines.
Cemex Holdings said in a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission it planned to sell 2.337 million common shares at up to P17 per share.
The company hired Citgroup Global Markets Ltd., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. and JP Morgan Securities Plc. as joint international underwriters.
BDO Capital and Investments Corp. is the domestic lead underwriter for the offering.
Cemex said in a disclosure to the New York Stock Exchange the filing of the registration statement with the Philippine SEC marked the first step in one of the alternatives the group was exploring in the context of its previously announced asset divestiture plan.
“Cemex continues to explore other alternatives, and the ultimate implementation of any such alternative remains at the discretion of Cemex,” it said.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index climbed 2.1 percent since the start of the year and recently hit a 2016 high of 7,119.86.
The country’s biggest share sale was launched in 2013 when the LT Group Inc. of Lucio Tan raised P37.72 billion through a follow-on offering.
Cemex Holdings’ assets consist primarily of cement manufacturing assets in the Philippines with total capacity of 5.7 million tons.
The company entered the Philippine market in 1997, with a minority investment of 30 percent in Rizal Cement Company Inc., a company which was established in November 1930, which was later merged with Solid Cement.
Cemex together with other investors purchased an aggregate 99.9 percent interest in Apo Cement in 1999.
Cemex announced in May 2015 it would undertake a new $300-million investment in the Philippines that would include the construction of a new 1.5-million-ton, integrated cement-production line at Solid Cement plant in Luzon.
This will double the capacity of the Solid plant and will represent a 25-percent increase in the company’s cement capacity in the Philippines.
Cemex is a global building materials company and has presence in more than 50 countries.
Aside from Cemex, other big cement players in the domestic industry include Holcim Philippines and Republic Cement & Building Materials Inc., formerly Lafarge Republic Inc., which is now owned by AEV-CRH Holdings Inc.
Cement companies in the Philippines are currently expanding their capacities as demand remains strong both from the public and private sectors.
Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines said cement sales in 2015 rose 14.3 percent to 24.36 million tons from 21.3 million tons recorded in 2014.