The Philippine Stock Exchange has approved a follow-on equity offering of STI Education Systems Holdings Inc., formerly JTH Davies Holdings, worth P4.35 billion within this month.
STI is offering up to 2.9 billion common shares for as much as P1.50 per share. The final price will be set on Oct. 23 ahead of the Oct. 29-31 offer period. The stock trading debut is slated for Nov. 7, based on a PSE memorandum circular.
The Tanco-led company expects to sell up to 80 percent or P3.28 billion worth of the offered shares to the overseas market. The company maintains and operates the Philippines’ largest private for-profit network of educational institutions.
The offered shares will consist of 2.63 billion primary common shares, 03 96.15 percent of the total, while 105.2 million common shares, or 3.85 percent, will be secondary shares from shareholder Korea Merchant Banking Corp.
There will also be an over allotment option of up to 273 million common shares. STI has granted its stabilizing agent, UBS AG, the option to take up the over allotment at the offer price. This option can be exercised within 30 days from the listing date. This would bring the total issue to three billion common shares.
For the domestic market, each PSE trading participant will be given an allotment of up to 4.108 million shares based on the list of 133 players as of the end of September.
The transaction will give STI a public ownership of about 27.3 percent.
Net proceeds from the primary offer were estimated to reach P3.77 billion, which will be used to cover the firm’s P3.9-billion capital spending planned for 2013 and 2014.
Businessman Eusebio Tanco, the controlling stockholder, earlier said STI would open 10 new campuses to expand its educational network across the country in the next two to three years. Seven of the 10 new sites will be in Luzon, specifically on the following areas: Caloocan, Cubao, Ortigas-Cainta, Lucena, Calamba, Las Piñas and Quezon City in front of Trinoma mall. The three remaining sites will be in the Visayas-Mindanao regions, specifically in Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro. Doris C. Dumlao