Cemex Philippines controlling stockholder sets P2-B tender offer

Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc., the local unit of global cement giant Cemex Group of Mexico, announced a P2-billion tender offer to purchase a portion of shares held by minority stockholders, triggering an intraday share price jump of almost 20 percent on Wednesday.

The listed company’s controlling stockholder, Cemex Asian South East Corp., will bid for 1.61 billion shares at P1.30 each, which will shrink the company’s public float from nearly 22 percent to just above the minimum 10 percent required by the Philippine Stock Exchange.

“The tender offer is proposed to be conducted for the purpose of increasing and consolidating the bidder’s interests in [Cemex Philippines]. The bidder further stresses that the tender offer is not being conducted for delisting purposes,” Cemex Philippines said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.

According to the company, the offer will run from Feb. 16 through March 16 this year.

Cemex Philippine shares, which have surged 90 percent since the start of the year, were up sharply the day before the tender offer was disclosed. On Wednesday, the company’s share price closed 13.37 percent up to P1.16 following the announcement.

In the disclosure, Cemex Philippines said the tender offer would also “provide an opportunity for existing public shareholders to realize their investment, at a premium to the current trading price of the outstanding common shares.”

Despite recent gains, Cemex Philippines is still down 89 percent from its 2016 initial public offering price of P10.75 per share.

According to the company, the tender offer price was set a premium above its one-month volume weighted average price (VWAP) of P0.772 per share and the one-year VWAP of P0.791 per share.

Cemex Philippines had a market value of P15.65 billion on Wednesday.

Its two cement plants, Apo Cement in Nag City, Cebu and Solid Cement in Antipolo City, Rizal, have a total installed capacity of 5.7 million tons per year.

Cemex Asian South East Corp. is a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Cemex España S.A., which is owned by Mexico’s Cemex S.A.B. de C.V.