Expanding logistics company earmarks P4B for acquisition

Chelsea Logistics Corp. is looking to spend about P4 billion for acquisitions to help drive future growth following its initial public offering in the middle of 2017.

Chelsea chair and founder Dennis Uy said last week there were prospective targets but he declined to name them, saying talks were covered by nondisclosure agreements.

Uy, a Davao-based businessman who also owns and heads Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., cited good prospects for Chelsea, which announced in April that it would sell shares to the public via an IPO valued at about P8 billion.

The offer would consist of 546.6 million new shares, or about 30 percent of the company. The maximum offer price was pegged at P14.63 per share.

Briefing materials given to reporters last week showed that Chelsea would allot P4 billion, about half of the proceeds, for acquisition of businesses, while P2.73 billion will be used to beef up the company’s fleet and acquire equipment.

Uy outlined Chelsea’s vision to become a leading industry player or what he described as a “super shipping and logistics company.”

Chelsea currently has 34 vessels composed of 11 tankers, four barges, three cargo boats, six tugboats and 10 roll-on/roll-off vessels.

Its tanker fleet accounts for 14 percent of the industry’s gross registered tonnage (GRT), according to briefing materials shared by Chelsea. It is a much smaller player in cargo capacity, with just 2 percent of GRT.

Part of this effort involved the acquisition by Chelsea of Uy’s roughly 28-percent stake in logistics giant 2GO Group Inc. The transaction was backed by a $220-million bridge loan agreement with Bank of China Ltd., which was signed last week. Uy and Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp. jointly control 2GO.

Chelsea, established in 2006, is the logistics arm of Udenna Corp., Uy’s main holding company.
Earlier this month, Udenna bagged a provisional license from Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to develop a $300-million integrated gaming resort in Cebu.

The casino-hotel resort will rise within a 12-hectare property in Mactan island, near Cebu’s main international airport. The resort could be open to the public as early as 2019, the company had said.