GT Capital raising up to P12B

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a plan by the Ty family-led conglomerate, GT Capital Holdings, to raise up to P12 billion via an offering of non-voting perpetual preferred shares to the public.

Based on documents from the SEC, the GT Capital planned to offer at least 8 million perpetual preferred shares at 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, for a total of P12 billion.

A perpetual preferred stock has no maturity date and will pay dividends indefinitely until the issuer exercises its option to redeem the shares.

GT Capital expects to use the 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 also be used for other strategic acquisitions.

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

In the first semester, GT Capital grew its net profit by 62-percent year-on-year to P9.1 billion on higher earnings from its automotive, real estate and bancassurance businesses. Excluding one-time gain from the sale of its 56 percent stake in power generation unit Global Business Power Corp. to the First Pacific group, GT Capital’s core profit rose by 16-percent year-on-year to P6.2 billion.

Consolidated revenue for six months rose by 40 percent to P102.4 billion on robust vehicle sales of Toyota Motor Philippines Corp, sustained real estate sales and higher contributions from associates. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla