Vulcan to raise funds to boost capital in ’13

Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corp., which is being groomed as a prospective backdoor listing vehicle for retailer National Bookstore, plans to raise fresh funds from the sale of treasury shares early this year.

In a recent regulatory filing, Vulcan said the sale of about 7.728 million treasury shares was intended to augment its working capital and to pay for various obligations.

The treasury shares represent about 1.3 percent of the company’s 600 million issued shares.

“The corporation expects to dispose all its treasury shares in the first semester of 2013,” Vulcan said.

Vulcan shares closed at P1.40 on Friday, giving it a market capitalization of P841 million.

The company also obtained board approval of the term sheet covering the acquisition by Anglo Philippine Holdings Corp., a related party, of all rights, obligations and interests in wholly owned subsidiary Vulcan Materials Corp.

This suggests that the Ramos family is consolidating mining interests in Anglo-Phil.

On the other hand, the Ramos family has signaled that it was taking a serious look at bringing its retailing interests public, encouraged by the robust demand for shares in consumer-oriented companies like Puregold Price Club.

The privately held National Bookstore (NBS), an iconic brand in the Philippines, has over 140 stores nationwide.

Also, the NBS Group operates two department stores under the Crossings brand, one in Edsa Shangri-La Mall and another at the National Bookstore hub on Quezon Avenue.

The company also owns the Anvil publishing house on top of its investment portfolio.

The NBS Group recently acquired an interest in Vulcan, which plans to exit from the mining business.

Vulcan is increasing its authorized capital stock to P4 billion from P600 million to accommodate the conversion of the NBS Group’s advances of about P500 million into equity.