Seacem moves to comply with minimum float rule

Southeast Asia Cement Holdings Inc. (Seacem), a listed unit of French building materials giant Lafarge, sold a key asset back to its owners ahead of a private share offer that will allow it to comply with the minimum 10 percent public ownership rule of the local bourse.

A disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday showed that Seacem signed subscription agreements with two individual subscribers paving the way for the issuance of 554 million common shares at par value of P0.35.

The offering is equivalent to 7.9  percent of Seacem’s outstanding capital, split evenly between the two buyers. This will increase the company’s public float from 2.4 percent to more than the required minimum.

Trading of Seacem’s shares has been suspended since the end of last year, a penalty for failing to meet the 10 percent free float requirement of the PSE.

Companies that will remain non-compliant with this rule by the end of this month will be delisted effective July 1, according to the PSE.

The sale price was established after considering the net asset value of Seacem’s shares and as the company took into account the declaration of cash dividends on June 5.

Seacem also said on Thursday that it had agreed to sell 25 million shares of Seacem Silos Inc. to its major shareholders for P730 million. The shares were sold to Calumboyan Holdings Inc., owner of 61.95 percent of Seacem as of the end of the first quarter, and Lafarge Holdings Philippines, which owns almost 34 percent of the company.

Four other companies remain non-compliant with the PSE’s minimum float rule. Of these, Philcomsat Holdings Corp., Nextstage Inc. and PAL Holdings Inc. have signified their intent to comply while PNOC Exploration Corp. said it would likely opt for delist.