RFM raises P1.62 B through equity deal

MANILA—The food-and-beverage group RFM Corp. has raised P1.62 billion in fresh funds for expansion from the sale of equity via private placement.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, RFM said several stockholders agreed to sell 340 million shares at P4.77 per share. This block represented about 10.7 percent of the company’s outstanding shares of stock, thereby widening the company’s public float apart from generating cash proceeds.

In an interview, RFM vice president and head of corporate planning Ramon Lopez explained that this transaction was a “top-up” placement by which controlling shareholders from the Concepcion family had initially lent some shares for a quicker equity deal. The same shareholders would purchase the same amount of shares at the same price afterwards.

“So it will become a primary issuance. The proceeds will go to the company,” Lopez said. “This is because investors are requesting us to increase stock trading liquidity,” he said.

Proceeds from the secondary share sale will be set aside, for the meantime, for subscription by these selling shareholders to primary shares in RFM, he said.

Asked how RFM intended to use proceeds from this offering, Lopez said this would be to “prepare for possible acquisitions in the future.”

Earlier in the year, Lopez noted that RFM had paid down debt, which was part of an overall strategy to strengthen its balance sheet.

Based on Friday’s disclosure, the selling shareholders were Horizons Realty, Inc., BJS Development Corp., Triple Eight Holdings Inc. and RPMC Resources Inc. They are expected to subscribe to the same amount of shares to replace the ones they lent within 90 days, the disclosure said.

The private placement was executed by RFM through stock brokerage Maybank ATR Kim Eng Securities Inc.

Meanwhile, RFM separately disclosed that it had obtained written consent from two-thirds of shareholders to amend the company’s articles of incorporation to allow the waiver of rights to future issuance or disposition of any class of shares.