Italpinas prepares P650-M share offer

Boutique property developer Italpinas Development Corp. (IDC) will pursue a plan to offer as much as P650 million in preferred shares within this year to boost its funds for landbanking and capital expenditures.

IDC is also working to sustain its historical trend of doubling net profit year after year, company chair Romolo Nati told a press briefing after the company’s stockholders meeting on Monday.

In 2018, attributable net profit doubled to P120.56 million from P59.9 million the previous year.

Nati, an Italian architect who conceptualized and directed IDC’s designs, said the preferred shares would likely have a tenor of five years with convertibility feature kicking in on the third year based on a projected share price for the period. This will be IDC’s first time to issue such instruments.

Unicapital Inc., the same investment house that arranged the company’s initial public offering in 2015, was mandated to underwrite the offering of preferred shares. These preferred shares would be listed on the local stock exchange, Nati said.

“One good thing about preferred shares is it’s quite controlled and quite structured. Equity (offer) process would have been quite different,” said IDC president Jose Leviste III.

By selling preferred shares with a convertibility option, Nati said dilution of shares would be more limited because prices would have increased by then.

IDC introduced residential condominium development in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, with the launch of the 21-story Miramonti project. The company is now working to obtain approvals for a second phase.

In Cagayan de Oro, IDC has also sold more than 50 percent of the second phase of Citra Bella at Primavera City and is now accelerating efforts to launch phase three by next year.