Shareholders ok DoubleDragon’s P7.5B “re-IPO”

DoubleDragon chair and CEO Edgar Sia II (third from left) at the company’s stockholders meeting on Aug. 30, 2017

Fast-growing property developer DoubleDragon Properties Corp. obtained on Wednesday approval from shareholders to raise as much as P7.5 billion in fresh capital through a re-initial public offering (IPO).

This is part of its goal to join the Philippine Stock Exchange index roster in two years.

Unlike the P1.16-billion IPO conducted in April 2014 – which was entirely taken up by domestic retail investors because the company was much smaller then – the new follow-on offering aims not just to raise fresh capital but attract foreign institutional investors, DoubleDragon chair and chief executive officer Edgar Sia II said.

“For the last two years, we’ve been joining different conferences and met about 300 (foreign institutional) investors. That’s the group that we want to tap. This is a window for them so they can get good strategic position,” Sia told reporters after the company’s stockholders meeting on Wednesday.

DoubleDragon is now talking to a few foreign and local banks to tap for the re-IPO, which the company hopes to pursue within this year. An underwriting arrangement is expected to be firmed up soon.

During the annual meeting on Wednesday, shareholders of DoubleDragon ratified a plan to issue up to 150 million common shares from the company’s authorized but unissued capital stock.

The follow-on stock offering is likewise in line with DoubleDragon’s upgrading of its 2020 net profit goal to P5.5 billion from P4.8 billion as it expects its leasable portfolio to become bigger than originally projected by that time. DoubleDragon now expects its 2020 leasable portfolio to reach 1.2 million square meters compared to the old target of one million square meters.