BIZ BUZZ: Brown taipan’s bonanza

Business tycoon Manuel B. Villar must be euphoric these days.

But it’s probably not because there could be another Villar in the Senate. It’s likely because another Villar company has debuted on the local stock market with overwhelming demand from the investing public.

All stock market debutants are required to allot 10 percent of offer shares to local small investors (LSIs) to democratize equities investing.

While LSI participation has been increasing over the years—especially since the Philippine Stock Exchange jacked up in 2018 the maximum LSI allotment to P100,000 from P25,000 per account (and can be raised on a case-to-case basis)—this 10-percent cap had never been breached before.

That was until Villar’s AllDay Marts Inc. came to market. Biz Buzz heard its P4.5-billion initial public offering had been oversubscribed by 10 times the base offer.

As LSIs were drawn to this offering and were allowed to buy up to P300,000 per investor, the 10-percent allotment was breached for the first time in history. We heard that demand from the LSI segment hit 1.6 times the maximum allotment.

Of course it’s a relatively small issuance and the price per share—at 60 centavos each—is very much affordable.

This is why AllDay is set to refund some LSIs, as there are not enough shares to cover the demand.

On the institutional tranche, it was estimated that demand hit 2.5 times the base offer.

AllDay—the newest grocery pure play in addition to Puregold Price Club and MerryMart Consumer Corp.—sold 6.86 billion primary common shares and up to 685.71 million over-allotment option shares.

AllDay has a total of 33 stores with 55,881 square meters of net selling space as of end-June. It plans to expand its store network to 45 by 2022 and 100 by the end of 2026.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Sustainable mining

The Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) has reached a new milestone after becoming the first association in the country to report on its members’ compliance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The seven-member association, which is also the biggest group of nickel miners in the country, publicized its compliance report on Wednesday with a focus on three specific SDG goals—SDG 15, or “Life on land,” that gives importance to the protection, restoration and promotion of sustainable terrestrial ecosystems and the reversal of land degradation; SDG 1, or “No poverty,” that aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, and SDG 3, or “Health and population,” that promotes the well-being of everyone, regardless of age. In 2020, PNIA members were able to contribute to 15 out of the 17 UN SDGs, mainly toward developing and improving industry innovation and infrastructure, quality education and health. “Publicly listed companies are required to publish their SDG reports but an association is not, but we want to go beyond compliance,” said Harris Guevarra, CEO of Drink, the country’s first sustainability communications agency that worked with PNIA for its SDG report. Miners aligning with UN SDGs is a step toward promoting the use of consistent data among members that will allow stakeholders to develop a system to measure industry efforts toward social and environmental development. Dante Bravo, PNIA president and CEO of Ferronickel Holdings Inc., said the initiative aimed to educate the public about the mining industry and erase the stigma attached to ore extraction. “We try to show that we have accomplishments, we are properly documented, we are regulated, we go beyond what is required, we continue to improve our operations,” he said.

—Karl R. Ocampo