Alphaland firms up stock rights offering

MANILA, Philippines — The capital call allowed the group of former Trade Minister Roberto V. Ongpin to take control of the company and consequently dilute the stake held by British fund Ashmore.

Alphaland Tower on Ayala Avenue in Makati. The upscale property developer Alphaland Corp. has firmed up a stock rights offering to minority shareholders, citing the need to protect them from dilution following a recent capital call.

The stock rights offering will give minority shareholders the chance to buy additional Alphaland shares at P2.50 each.

“As part of the capital call done last January 2nd, we made a commitment to our minority shareholders to protect them from dilution,” Alphaland said in a statement on Wednesday.

About 108 million new Alphaland shares will form part of this stock rights offering, raising gross proceeds of P270.8 million.

“The proceeds will be used to partly fund the working capital and capital expenditure requirements of the company,” the disclosure said.

The stock rights offering period will run from Feb. 3 to 7, 2014.

Alphaland said Ashmore had defaulted on the capital call, allowing Ongpin’s group to acquire 50.57 percent of the company.

The statement said that because of time constraints, the earlier capital call was made only to owners of more than 10 percent via a private placement. But to protect minority shareholders, the board of directors authorized a rights offering exclusively for minority shareholders, or those owning less than 10 percent of the company.

Any shares not taken up in the offering will be acquired by Unicapital Securities Inc., the underwriter for the offering, the disclosure said.

New shares issued pursuant to the capital call and the stock rights offering shares will also be applied for listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Trading on Alphaland is suspended at the local bourse following its disclosure that it was not in compliance with the minimum public ownership requirement of 10 percent.

Alphaland management had claimed that this was because an offshore fund controlled by Ashmore had “misrepresented” an equity deal in 2012, something that the London-based fund has denied.