The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved two initial public offering (IPO) proposals, one worth as much as P6.2 billion by the Gaisano
clan’s retail holding firm Metro Retail Stores Group and another worth as much as P4.66 billion by construction firm DATEM Inc.
Based on documents from the SEC, Metro Retail was authorized to sell up to 920 million primary common shares at a maximum price of P6.10 per share. There will also be an overallotment option of up to P92 million common shares.
About P3.75 billion of the proceeds from the primary offering will be used to fund capital expenditures for the establishment of new stores. The
remainder will be used to establish a consolidated logistics and distribution center in Cebu as well as for working capital requirements.
Metro Retail is targeting to launch the offering in November. Mandated as joint global coordinators and lead underwriters are BPI Capital Corp. and
Deutsche Bank AG Hong Kong branch.
DATEM, for its part, is selling 329.05 million shares at a maximum price of P14.15. The primary offer will consist of 257.51 million shares while
secondary shares amounting to 28.62 million will also be offered. There will be an option to increase the offering by 42.92 million shares.
First Metro Investment Corp. and BPI Capital were mandated to arrange DATEM’s offering, which is expected to be launched in November.
About 32.2 percent of the proceeds will be used to fund the capital outlays for construction, such as to purchase various construction equipment for
high-rise construction projects, modernization, relocation and expansion of pre-cast plant facilities and equipment as well as diversification into infrastructure works.
Another 28.9 percent of the proceeds will be used for the landbanking and construction activities of residential subsidiary Datem Homes Inc. while 10.6 percent will be used by subsidiary Datem Water Inc.