Alterra eyeing follow-on offering

Alterra Capital Partners Inc., the backdoor-listing vehicle of biotech firm Philab Industries Inc., plans to raise up to P3.37 billion from a follow-on stock offering this year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Alterra said the indicative pricing for the equity deal would be between P3.25 and P6.75 per share.

Based on a plan to offer 500 million shares, this will translate to an equity deal of P1.62 billion to P3.37 billion.

Local investment house Philippine Commercial Capital Inc. is the lead underwriter for the follow-on offering.

The follow-on offering is subject to the approvals of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The company has been targeting to raise at least P2 billion through a stock offering.

Philab plans to roll out self-diagnostic kits that will allow households to conduct screen tests for mosquito-carried diseases.

One of the country’s foremost providers of laboratory equipment and the oldest business institution servicing medical and scientific research, Philab also plans to set up a genomics laboratory to help people determine complete DNA sequences and perform genetic mapping to help understand those diseases.

At present, Philab derives 80 percent of its business from the education sector. The company serves the Department of Education (DepEd) and various universities and research centers by providing science teaching kits. Projected revenue collection from DepEd alone is about P2.4 billion this year.

Philab also sells “lab-it” or laboratory instant testing for the healthcare segments. Over a million kits have been sold to the Department of Health.

The company expects to generate about P1 billion in revenue from the rollout of dengue diagnostic kits by 2017 or 2018.  —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA