SEC oks Wilcon Depot’s P7.9B IPO

The Securities and Exchange Commission en banc approved on Thursday a P7.9-billion initial public offering plan by the country’s leading home improvement and construction supplies retailer Wilcon Depot Inc.

Wilcon plans to offer around 1.39 billion primary common shares at a price per share of up to P5.68 per share.

This exercise will bring to public hands around 33.9 percent of the company’s shares after the initial public offering. Wilcon seeks to list a total of 4.099 billion shares on the stock exchange.

Net proceeds are estimated at P7.58 billion after deducting underwriting fees, costs and expenses, based on documents from the SEC.

Bulk of the net proceeds amounting to P6.11 billion or 81 percent will be used to fund store network expansion from 2017 to 2021, the document said.

Some P972.44 million will be used by Wilcon for debt repayment while P500 million will be set aside for general corporate purposes.