ICTSI sells common shares, raises P8.2B for expansion

International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), a listed ports operator headed by businessman Enrique Razon Jr., completed late Tuesday an overnight share offer that raised P8.19 billion to partly fund its expansion plans.

The offer, which was more than two times overbooked according to a deal arranger, comes as ICTSI trades near record highs given buoyant market conditions spurred by the country’s recent investment-grade ratings.

A filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday showed that ICTSI, through joint bookrunners UBS AG and CLSA, sold a total of 90 million common shares at P91 each, a roughly 9 percent discount to its closing price before the transaction was announced.

ICTSI sold 36.9 million treasury shares while another 53.11 million shares held by Razon, the company’s chairman, was sold through a placement and subscription transaction to buyers in the Philippines and abroad.

The shares were crossed at the PSE on Wednesday, a filing showed.

“It shows there is continued appetite for Philippine equities. This is also an offshoot of the publicity the country is getting. An investment grade also has something to do with that,” Joseph Roxas, president of stock brokerage firm Eagle Equities Inc., said in an interview.

ICTSI still has 11.1 million shares left, which are valued at P1.04 billion, based on current prices.

Lauro Baja III, managing director at UBS Investments Philippines, noted that the deal mainly drew Asian investors, accounting for 63 percent of the offer, while 27 percent came from the United States and the remaining 10 percent from Europe.

ICTSI’s operations span several ports in Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East making it familiar to investors in those areas.

Indeed, the offer was upsized from about 70 million shares given strong demand from investors, Baja said.

ICTSI has budgeted $550 million for capital spending this year, mainly to complete terminal development projects in Argentina and Mexico and to ramp up expansion in Colombia and Davao, Mindanao.