Del Monte completes P93.5-M follow-on offer

SCREENGRAB from www.delmontepacific.com

Del Monte Pacific Ltd. (DMPL) has completed a domestic follow-on offering priced at P17 a share, part of a series of fund-raising activities the conglomerate lined up to cut its debt arising from its big US acquisition.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, the food conglomerate of the Campos family said it had completed the sale of 5.5 million shares in an offering reported to be “oversubscribed.”

At P17 a share, this allowed the company to raise P93.5 million from the transaction. This also brought DMPL’s market capitalization to P29.76 billion.

The new shares are expected to be listed on Oct. 30. DMPL is listed on the PSE and the Singapore Exchange.

At P17 a share, DMPL’s offer was priced at a premium of about 1.65 percent to the volume-weighted average price for trades done on both exchanges on the day the underwriting agreement was signed.

BPI Capital was the underwriter of the follow-on offering, the proceeds from which would be used to partially repay short-term debt.

It was earlier revealed that DMPL planned to reduce debt by $520 million through a mix of public stock, perpetual preferred shares and stock rights offering.

Del Monte Pacific incurred a huge debt when it acquired the consumer food business of American corporation Del Monte Foods (DMFI) for $1.675 billion, a deal that allowed the Philippine firm to break into the US market and reunite with its mother brand in the United States.