Fruit canner and grower Del Monte Philippines Inc. deferred its P13.5-billion initial public offering due to stock market volatility.
Del Monte did not provide a new timetable on the share sale.
The company said in a disclosure to the stock exchange while it secured regulatory approvals for the planned share sale, market conditions remained volatile. Its bankers and advisors recommended the postponement of the IPO until the market conditions improve.
“The company will make further announcements in relation to the offering as appropriate,” Del Monte said.
The company was about to peg the final offering price of the IPO on June 6 after reducing it to P18 to P23 per share from the original target of up to P29.88 apiece.
Del Monte had set the offering period from June 8 to 18 and the listing date on June 25.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange Index at the end of May was down more than 10 percent on the steady outflow of foreign funds.
Del Monte plans to sell 587.437 million in secondary shares owned by Central American Resources Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Resources Ltd., which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Ltd.
Del Monte plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to partially pay certain loan facilities extended by DMPL, and refinance financial obligation of the DMPL Group to significantly trim its leverage position.
DMPL tapped BDO Capital and Investments Corp., BPI Capital Corp. and China Bank Capital Corp. joint domestic lead underwriters and DBS Bank Ltd. and Nomura as joint international lead underwriters.
Up to 70 percent of the offered shares will be sold to domestic investors and 30 percent to foreign institutional and retail buyers.
Del Monte is engaged in the production and sale of food and beverage products in the Philippines under the Del Monte brand, such as fruit juices and juice drinks, packaged pineapple and mixed fruit, various tomato, spaghetti sauces and culinary mixes, and the export of these products under other brands.