P12B GT Cap preferred shares offer ok’d

THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a plan by Ty family-led conglomerate GT Capital Holdings to raise up to P12 billion from an offering of non-voting perpetual preferred shares to the public.

Based on documents from the SEC, the conglomerate plans to offer at least 8 million perpetual preferred shares at an issue price of P1,000 per share. This will allow GT Capital to raise at least P8 billion from this offering.

The offering can be upsized by up to 4 million preferred shares in case of oversubscription, bringing the maximum issuance to P12 billion.

A perpetual preferred stock has no maturity date and will continue paying dividends indefinitely until the issuer, GT Capital, exercises its option to redeem the shares.

GT Capital expects to use proceeds from the offer to refinance by the fourth quarter of this year previous acquisitions that were earlier paid through bridge financing. Part of the proceeds will likewise be used for other strategic acquisitions.

In October last year, the conglomerate availed of P9 billion from Philippine National Bank, Security Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands and the Development Bank of the Philippines.