Two firms’ listing to cap off bourse’s volatile year

Two firms are set to list on the local bourse before the end of the year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the initial public offering of Gaisano’s retail holding firm Metro Retail Stores Group could raise as much as P6.2 billion while that of construction firm Datem Inc. could raise as much as P4.66 billion.

SEC documents showed 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 over-allotment option of up to P92 million common shares.

Metro Retail is targeting to launch the offering in November.

About P3.75 billion of the proceeds from the primary offering will be used to fund capital expenditures for the establishment of new stores.

Metro Retail, which operates supermarkets, department stores and hypermarkets, plans to open at least seven stores in 2016. It has secured 10 sites for stores that will open in 2016 and 2017, most of which are in the Visayas region.

The remainder of the proceeds from the IPO will be used for, among others, the establishment of a consolidated logistics and distribution center in Cebu.

“The company is migrating from an outsourced supply chain process to a company-controlled supply chain management system in order to increase the efficiency and reliability of supply operations,” the company said.

Mandated as joint global coordinators and lead underwriters are BPI Capital Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG Hong Kong branch.

Metro Retail’s revenues in 2014 amounted to P28.54 billion while net income stood at P628.9 million. Net profit in the first semester of this year amounted to P211.3 million out of P14.82 billion in revenues.

Datem, for its part, is selling 329.05 million shares at a maximum price of P14.15 per share.

The primary offer will consist of 257.51 million shares while 28.62 million in secondary shares will also be offered. The over-allotment option will consist of 42.92 million shares.

First Metro Investment Corp. and BPI Capital were mandated to arrange the offering, which is also expected to be launched in November.

About 32.2 percent of the proceeds will be used to fund the firm’s capital outlay projects, including the purchase of various construction equipment for high-rise construction projects, among others.

Of the remaining proceeds, 28.9 percent will be used for the construction activities of residential subsidiary Datem Homes Inc., while 10.6 percent will be used by subsidiary Datem Water Inc.

The company said it intended to maintain a minimum annual dividend payout ratio of 15 percent of its audited consolidated net income in the preceding year.

Datem posted a net profit of P138.28 million in the first half of the year out of P3.8 billion in revenues.

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