Gokongweis sell P3.2B worth of JG Summit shares

MANILA, Philippines—The Gokongweis sold P3.2 billion worth of shares in JG Summit Holdings to diversify its investor base and meet strong market demand.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, JG Summit said the Gokongweis’ Express Holdings sold 100 million shares at P32 a share, or at a discount of about 7 percent from Tuesday’s closing price of P34.40.

This was equivalent to about 1.5 percent of JG Summit’s outstanding shares.

Investment bank UBS AG acted as the sole bookrunner for the transaction.  The overnight book-building was about 1.5 times oversubscribed and about 50 institutional investors, mostly Asian-based, participated, UBS Philippines managing director Lauro Baja said in an interview.

JG Summit was among the 10 Philippine companies that joined the Asean investor conference organized by UBS in Singapore in September, during which investors expressed interest in buying the company’s shares. But as JG Summit had no plans to sell shares, UBS had to convince the Gokongweis to sell some of their holdings.

In February, the Gokongwei group also sold to overseas investors $125 million worth of shares in JG Summit, or about 3 percent of the outstanding stock, also in an overnight equity placement deal, to boost its stock trading liquidity. JG Summit affiliates, including Universal Robina Corp., placed out 215 million shares for P25 per share in a deal also arranged by UBS.

JG Summit is engaged in the food, airline, property, banking and petrochemical businesses. It also holds a minority interest in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.

Earlier this year, a research by CLSA Asia-Pacific said the conglomerate of John Gokongwei was back in the limelight as a beneficiary of the Philippines’ strong consumption story and budding gaming and tourism sectors.

Originally posted at 10:45 am | September 26, 2012