Emperador completes P16.2-B share offer

Trillionstars Holdings Inc. (TSI), soon to be renamed Emperador Inc.,  completed a public share sale at a discount to its market price, according to a regulatory filing.

The deal has been valued at P16.2 billion.

The 1.8 billion shares on offer, equivalent to a 12 percent stake in the company, were priced at P8.89 apiece, the company said Friday in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. The price reflected a 19.5-percent discount to its previous close due to strong interest among domestic and overseas investors.

The offer price, which was determined after a book building process, was pegged near the bottom of the indicative range of P8.96 and P11.74 previously reported by Thomson Reuter’s IFR.

The selling shareholder was Andrew Tan’s flagship holding firm, Alliance Global Group Inc., although most of the proceeds from the offer will go back to TSI.

Because of the large discount, TSI fell as much as 16.7 percent during the session. It closed 14.52-percent lower to P9.54 a share.

“The offering attracted strong interest from a wide range of domestic and international investors, including high quality institutional investors as well as ultra-high net worth investors,” the company said.

Alliance Global Group is the parent firm of Emperador as well as Tan’s other business interests in real estate like Megaworld Corp and Resorts World Manila. It also owns half of the local franchise holder of the McDonalds chain.

Only a few weeks ago, TSI was known as IT firm Touch Solutions Inc. prior to a backdoor listing transaction of Emperador, which is the world’s biggest producer of brandy.

Based on the agreement between Alliance Global Group and TSI, P11.2 billion of the gross proceeds will be used by TSI to fund the growth of Emperador.

Based on the offer price, TSI’s market capitalization will be valued at approximately P135 billion, making it one of the top 20 largest listed companies on the PSE.  Miguel R. Camus