DMW oversubscribed, but share price down

Amid tough market conditions, integrated property developer DM Wenceslao and Associates Inc. (DMW)—a property play in the metropolis’ burgeoning central business and entertainment district along Manila Bay—yesterday made its debut on the local stock exchange.

Despite the bearish market, the P8.1-billion equity deal was “oversubscribed, anchored by institutional investors” and mostly funded by domestic money.  Its stock price, however, fell by 14.5 percent to close at P10.26 a share on its first trading day.

“The growth prospects did not change. It’s just the [overall] market sentiment. At the end of the day, the price went down, but that just means we left money on the table,” DMW chief executive officer Delfin Angelo Wenceslao said in a briefing after the listing ceremony yesterday.

Moving forward, Wenceslao said DMW—developer and owner of Aseana City—would likely generate 50 to 60 percent of its earnings from recurring sources residential development sales would overtake earnings from land sales.

At an initial public offering price of P12 per share, the company’s shares were sold at a substantially lower level than the net asset value per share.

Rajiv Vijendran, regional head of Maybank Kim Eng’s investment banking and advisory group, said the offering was “oversubscribed” and anchored by institutional investors.

DMW sold 679.2 million common shares, bringing 20 percent of its shares to public hands.