LBC Express Holdings Inc. of the Araneta Group will revive a plan to sell up to 69.1 million shares to raise funds and finance expansion.
LBC Express said in a disclosure to the stock exchange its board in a meeting held April 12 approved the re-filing of the application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 69.1 million common shares, consisting of 10 million primary shares and 59.1 million secondary shares.
The sale of 69.1 million shares based on LBC Express’ closing price of P15 Thursday will raise as much as P1.036 billion in proceeds for the company.
Abacus Capital and Investment Corp. was tapped as lead underwriter and issue manager for the follow-on offering.
“The company expects to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes and working capital, including the expansion of retail and corporate business, information technology development, and other corporate purposes,” LBC Express said.
The follow-on offering is subject to the approvals of the SEC and the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The SEC in April 2017 rejected the planned share sale of LBC Express due to a non-disclosure of the material information in the prospectus, including the legal proceedings involving its major shareholders.
The SEC said LBC Express did not include in its registration statement filed with the corporate regulator the pending cases filed by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation against the controlling persons of the company.
LBC Express at that time intended to raise P1.2 billion from sale of 69.1 million shares at an indicative price of P17 apiece.
LBC Express last month reported it was acquiring two logistics firms in bid to strengthen its position as the country’s leading payments, remittance, courier products, mail, parcels and cargo logistics company.
It has also ben consolidating its operations by acquiring four affiliate cargo and remittance companies operating in California, New Jersey, Saipan and Hawaii for $8.55 million.
LBC Express provides logistics services through a network of 1,000 branches located nationwide. It has set up branches in several locations in North America, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Europe and Oceania.