Cebu’s Top Line braves market, files for IPO

After seven years, another company hailing from Cebu City will brave the stock market in hopes of expanding the business at home before eventually reaching areas outside the country’s second-largest metropolis.

Lim family-led Top Line Business Development Corp., whose core business includes commercial fuel trade, plans to raise up to P3.16 billion from its planned initial public offering (IPO) and list under the ticker “TOP.”

The company on Sunday said it had filed for its IPO with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Top Line wants to offer 3.68 billion primary common shares with an overallotment option of up to 368.31 million secondary shares in case of excess demand.

These will be priced at up to P0.78 each, according to Top Line, with the offer period tentatively scheduled on Oct. 28 to Nov. 5.

“With our accelerating growth in recent years in the fuel sector of the Visayas region, we are poised for the company’s historic milestone of listing on the PSE,” Top Line chair, president and CEO Erik Lim said in a statement.

Top Line will be the first Cebu-based company to list since 2017, when Soberano-led property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) went public and raised P2.9 billion.

The Visayas and Mindanao-focused CLI is now slated to expand to Luzon.

Lim previously told the Inquirer that an IPO was “the best way to accelerate” Top Line’s expansion.

His family’s company was launched in 2013 and has interests in commercial fuel trade and distribution, port operations, real estate and renewable energy spread across Cebu province.

Top Line’s first-semester earnings nearly tripled to P60.6 million on strong sales from its fuel trading business, which caters to customers requiring at least 4,000 liters per order for transportation, construction, shipping and mining, among others.

Revenues during the period also expanded by 15 percent to P1.56 billion.

Light Fuels Corp., its retail fuel brand, built its first fuel service station in Mandaue City last year.

The fuel station along AC Cortes Avenue serves light four-wheel vehicles—such as sedans—and motorcycles.

Lim said they particularly wanted to target the two-wheel vehicle market for expansion, especially since motorcycles accounted for 68 percent of all vehicles in Central Visayas. —MEG J. ADONIS INQ