Tanduay Holdings completes P1.68B equity sale to meet 10% public float

MANILA, Philippines— Lucio Tan-led Tanduay Holdings has completed a P1.68-billion equity sale, which allowed the rum-maker to widen its public float to meet the 10 percent minimum required by the local bourse.

The shares were crossed on the local bourse on Thursday, during which the voluntary trading halt on Tanduay shares was also lifted. As it resumed trading, however, Tanduay’s share price fell by 18.8 percent to P4.14 per share.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, Tanduay said the offering of 398.14 million common shares at P4.22 per share was fully purchased by a mix of institutional and retail investors during the offering period.

Under the scheme, Tanduay’s majority shareholder Tangent Holdings – in turn controlled by the group of Lucio Tan – sold secondary shares to the public. Tangent will use the proceeds to buy exactly the same amount of new shares from Tanduay at exactly the same price as the prior subscription, less the expenses.

“The offer proceeds will be used to finance the expansion of capacity, improvement of operational efficiencies and rationalization of operations,” the disclosure said.

The financial advisor and issue manager of the offer was PNB Capital & Investment Corp. while joint bookrunners were PNB Capital and Asian Alliance Investment Corp.