CONSTRUCTION AND engineering firm Megawide Construction Corp. will be the first company to debut on the Philippine Stock Exchange this 2011 with a P2.29-billion initial public offering.

The PSE has approved Megawide?s plan to sell up to 292 million primary common shares for about P7.84 a share, according to the circular posted yesterday.

This offering, which will run from February 7 to 11, will transfer 34 percent of the company?s total stock to public hands. All of its 857 million post-IPO shares will be listed on the PSE?s main board on Feb. 18. The offer price will be finalized by February 3.

The issue manager and lead underwriter of the offering is BDO Capital & Investment Corp.

Megawide plans to use the proceeds for the construction and development of a pre-cast concrete manufacturing plant, acquisition of new tower cranes as well as other earth-moving equipment and new formworks. The rest will be used to boost working capital.

After the IPO, the construction firm will have a market capitalization of P6.72 billion.

The company was founded in 1997 at the height of the Asian crisis by Michael Cosiquien (chair) and Edgar Saavedra (president), two civil engineers from De La Salle University.

Since then, Megawide has grown into a P2-billion company claiming a 20-percent share of the high-rise residential property construction business. Turnover is projected to double to P4 billion this year. The company employs 400 engineers and 200 support staff.

Saavedra and Cosiquien, still the controlling stockholders of the company, owning 29.54 percent and 26.44 percent, respectively, will have their shares under lock up for 180 days in line with the PSE?s rules.

This year, Megawide, the major contractor of tycoon Henry Sy?s SM Development Corp., has earmarked P2.02 billion in capital expenditure, up by 242 percent from the nine-month capital spending posted last year.

Megawide says it accounts for around 70 percent of the residential condominium projects of the Sy family?s SMDC.

Aside from the SM group, its clients include Belle Corp., Antel Group, Suyen Corp. (owner of Bench), Prince Jun Development Group, Bellevue Hotel Group, Keppelland Realty, Malate Bayview Development Group and Goldland Properties and Dynamic Realty.