Top Line Business Development Corp., the Cebu-based fuel retailer of the Lim family, has postponed its stock market debut to the first quarter of 2025 to give potential investors enough time to prepare.
Top Line on Monday informed the Philippine Stock Exchange it has decided to reschedule its P3.16-billion initial public offering (IPO) to accommodate the “due diligence process” of potential institutional investors.
“This strategic move provides them with the necessary time for their thorough internal review and approval process,” Top Line chair, president and CEO Erik Lim said in a statement.
Top Line was supposed to be the country’s fourth and final IPO for this year.
Institutional investors, such as banks or insurance companies, typically pour in large sums of money into IPOs to diversify their investment portfolios.
New timetable soon
Top Line, which also has businesses in real estate and port operations, originally planned to offer its shares to the public from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, and list on Dec. 12 under the ticker symbol “TOP.”
According to the company, the new timetable will be “announced soon” after all regulatory processes are met.
Top Line is set to offer up to 3.63 billion primary common shares at up to P0.78 each. An extra 368.31 million secondary common shares would be offered in case of high demand.
Despite the postponement, Lim said they were “happy” with qualified institutional investors’ reception of the IPO, “reflecting the strong fundamentals and positive prospects for the fuel industry.”
This comes after Lim told reporters last week that the market’s current downtrend would not delay Top Line’s IPO.
“Since we’re already committed to our investors and to our growth strategy for Top Line … we’re still okay with pushing through with the listing,” Lim said.
After its brief stay at the bull territory, the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) had retreated by 10.5 percent to the 6,700 level as investors priced in a second Donald Trump presidency in the United States. Trump’s presidency is expected to bring in higher import tariffs, which is seen to hurt equities.
For the PSEi to breach the 7,000 mark, investors need to see a stronger peso, according to Japhet Tantiangco, research head at Philstocks Financial Inc. —Meg J. Adonis