THE TY family has unloaded $172 million worth of shares in conglomerate GT Capital Holdings, widening the company’s public ownership while pocketing gains from rich market valuations.
Through holding firm Grand Titan Capital Holdings, the family sold around 5.23 million common shares to institutional investors at P1,539 per share in an “oversubscribed” private placement deal arranged by investment bank UBS.
The deal still leaves Grand Titan with a majority stake in GT Capital equivalent to 51.3 percent, based on a regulatory filing.
The private placement was priced at a 3.1-percent discount to the 10-day average and 5 percent discount to Wednesday’s close.
Lauro Baja, managing director at UBS Philippines, said around 60 investors had participated in the equity offering. He said the deal was oversubscribed by 2.5 times the base offer.
“It was primarily allocated to global long-term investors,” Baja said in a text message on Thursday.
About 63 percent of the subscribers came from Hong Kong and Singapore, 24 percent from the Philippines, 7 percent from Europe and 6 percent from the US, Baja said.
GT Capital, currently valued by the market at around P282 billion, has interests in market-leading businesses across banking (Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.), property development (Federal Land and Pro-Friends), automotive assembly (Toyota Motor Philippines), importation, wholesaling, dealership, and financing, and life and non-life insurance. (Philippine AXA ). It is also the single biggest voting block at infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp.