MANILA, Philippines—Conglomerate Ayala Corp. has raised $275 million in fresh equity from the sale of common shares through a “top-up” private placement, increasing its leeway to expand into the power and infrastructure space.
In a press statement on Thursday, AC said it had placed out 18.78 million common shares at P660 per share through this “top-up” scheme which also increased its public float to over 40 percent from 38.23 percent.
Under the top-up scheme, secondary shares are sold by a principal shareholder for a faster equity deal but it will subscribe the same number of shares at the same price, allowing the proceeds to flow into the company. In this case, the Ayala clan’s holding firm Mermac Inc. is the seller of the secondary shares and also the subscriber to the subsequent subscription tranche.
The placing price reflected a discount of 5.2 percent to the 30-day volume weighted average closing price of Ayala shares.
The conglomerate said it intended to use the proceeds for investments in power and infrastructure projects, among the emerging businesses of Ayala.
“Proceeds raised from this placement will allow Ayala to expand into business lines that will result in robust and sustainable earnings for the Company. At the same time, this equity issuance further strengthens the balance sheet of the company,” said Ayala chief finance officer Delfin Gonzalez Jr.
The placement was 2.35 times oversubscribed with strong demand coming from long-only funds and a good mix of investors coming from Asia, Europe and the US.
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