Keepers price up on listing of new shares

Shares of retail tycoon Lucio Co-led liquor firm The Keepers Holdings Inc. advanced by 12.6 percent from the follow-on offering (FOO) price during the company’s stock trading debut as a premium liquor play on Friday, following a well-received P4.5-billion share sale.

Keepers’ shares closed at P1.69 apiece from the FOO price of P1.50. Trading on the stock, which had been suspended since July this year due to the reduction in public float, opened at P1.69 per share and hit an intraday high of P1.85 per share.

The offering was oversubscribed by 2.2 times the entire offer, Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Ramon Monzon said during the listing ceremony.

On the local small investor tranche alone, demand amounted to 3.36 times the allotment, while the trading participant tranche was oversubscribed by 2.86 times the allotment.

“Clearly, local small investors would have found it quite difficult to get shares in this follow-on offering. So we commend Keeper for voluntarily allocating 5 percent of its offer shares to local small investors, enabling 3,542 local small investors from Metro Manila, 66 provinces and 22 countries to participate in this FOO new record for PSE EASy (Electronic Allocation System) in terms of reach,” Monzon said.

With the P4.5-billion equity deal, 20.82 percent of the company’s shares are now held by the public.

Monzon said Keeper could have attracted strong interest because of its growth prospects as it transitioned from a shell company to a holding company with three highly profitable operating subsidiaries.

The company owns and operates Montosco Inc., Meritus Prime Distributions Inc. and Premier Wine and Spirits Inc., three of the leading players in the domestic distribution of leading international liquor, wine and specialty beverage brands.

Keepers is now the largest distributor of imported spirits in the Philippines holding a 74-percent market share in terms of volume. Its portfolio includes brands such as Alfonso, Johnnie Walker, Jose Cuervo, Jim Beam and Jinro.

Proceeds from the share sale will be used by the company for strategic acquisitions as well as for product and distribution channel expansion.

Keepers expects to benefit from the recent easing of COVID-19 restrictions across the country and the upcoming holiday season.