DoubleDragon starts P10B preferred shares offering

PROPERTY developer DoubleDragon Properties Inc. rolled out on Tuesday an offering of up to P10 billion preferred shares convertible into common shares, setting the dividend rate of 6.4778 percent per annum.

The offering has been oversubscribed, with underwriters so far receiving P26 billion worth of demand or five times the base offering of P5 billion, DoubleDragon chief executive officer Edgar Sia II said on Tuesday.

Following the approval given by the Securities and Exchange Commission on this offering, Sia said the offering had started on Tuesday (March 29) and would run until April 7.

“The listing of the preferred shares is expected between April 8 and May 9 as soon as we get both the SEC approval of the amendment of articles (of incorporation) for the creation of preferred shares and PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) board approval,” Sia said.

Mandated as the lead underwriters are BPI Capital and RCBC Capital while the co-lead managers are Abacus Capital & Investment Corp., BDO Capital Corp., PNB Capital Corp. UCPB Group and Unicapital Inc. The co-managers are AB Capital and ATR Kim Eng / Maybank Philippines Group, Sia said.

The preferred shares is offered at P100 pesos per share, with minimum investment of P50,000 pesos and increment of P10,000 thereafter.

At the option of the investor, the preferred shares may be converted into common shares of DoubleDragon at a rate of one preferred share to one common share at any time starting the second anniversary up to the fifth anniversary of the issuance. Sia said this convertibility option was “to give the preferred holders possible future upside.”

“The string of hard assets that DoubleDragon is building will continue to appreciate in value since all are located in prime commercial areas of Metro Manila for our office projects, and prime commercial areas of the tier 2 and tier 3 provincial cities for our community mall projects across the Philippines,” Sia said.

Sia said he was glad that the offering had been warmly received by investors. “Positive developments like this fuel the whole DoubleDragon team to continue its passionate execution towards the set goals of the company,” he said.

DoubleDragon, previously known as Injap Land Corp., was started by Sia – who founded the Mang Inasal Chicken Bacolod restaurant chain – as a subsidiary of holding company Injap Investments Inc. HoneyStar Holdings of Jollibee Foods Corp. founder and former chief executive officer Tony Tan Caktiong afterwards bought into the company, which thus became an equal venture before it became a public company

Bulk of the proceeds will be used to expand the group’s chain of community shopping malls under the “CityMalls” brand, which will have a total of 30 malls on stream by the end of this year, mostly in Visayas and Mindanao. Some will be used to construct Meridian Park, a 4.8-hectare office and commercial development at the corner of Macapagal Avenue and Edsa Extension as well as Jollibee Tower, a 40-storey corporate building at the Ortigas central business district.

“The whole DoubleDragon team is working hard brick by brick in building a truly great company that will positively create longterm benefit to all its stakeholders. We always make sure that every step we take on leads to making DoubleDragon a really sturdy company that will last for generations,” Sia said.

DoubleDragon aims to be derive 90 percent of its revenues from recurring sources by 2020 as all its both commercial and office leasing projects will be on stream. Through flagship subsidiary CityMall Commercial Centers Inc. (CMCCI), the group expects to roll out 100 CityMalls by this time, mostly located in the “underserved” markets of Visayas and Mindanao.