Tender offer for SMDC, HP completed

HENRY SY SR.. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines—The group of tycoon Henry Sy has executed the first step towards the consolidation of property units to create Southeast Asia’s largest property firm: completing a tender offer for residential development units SM Development Corp. and Highlands Prime Inc.

The Sys’ privately-held SM Land Inc. has accepted shares tendered by minority shareholders of SMDC and HP, resulting in the decline in these firms’ respective public float to 1.1 percent and 0.15 percent, based on disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

SM Land, which already owns 65.18 percent of SMDC, increased its stake by 33.72 percentage after accepting about 3.13 billion common shares during the tender offer. SM Land also acquired 2.24 billion shares or 99.85 percent of HP.

This is in line with the first out of three steps under the consolidation framework. SM Land used shares in SM Prime Holdings Inc. – which will be the surviving entity during the merger of SM property units – as currency to pay for its purchase of shares in SMDC and HPI.

Shares of SM Prime, SMDC and HP valued at a total of P64 billion were approved to be crossed on the local stock exchange on Monday in line with this. In particular, SMPH shares valued at P33.18 billion were set for crossing at P18.66 per share, SMDC shares valued at P25.96 billion at P8.30 per share and P4.92 billion worth of HP shares at P2.195 per share.