THE state-owned pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Bank of the Philippine Islands were among the cornerstone investors of specialty retailer SSI Group Inc. on its initial public offering (IPO).
According to the company’s regulatory filing, BPI and and GSIS will buy a huge chunk of its P7.45-billion IPO slated within the year.
Other investors will include Capital Research and Management Co., Havenport Asset Management Pte. Ltd., MLIS – York Asian Event-Driven Ucits Fund, York Asian Opportunities Investment Master Fund, HSBC-FS B for Macquarie Asia New Stars Fund, and RBC Investor Services Bank SA a/c Macquarie Asia New Stars Fund. The cornerstone investors are buying about 33.8 percent of the offer shares, including the greenshoe option.
Store Specialists Inc. (SSI), however, reduced its offer price to just P7.50 from its original price of P12.50 per share.
No change has been made on the company’s offer structure of 864.22 million common shares of primary and secondary offer and an over-allotment option of up to 129.63 million shares, though the IPO proceeds have been reduced.
All shares offered for sale approximately amount to 26.1 percent of the company post-IPO.
According to revised prospectus, some P2.5 billion of the proceeds will be for store development of its specialty retailing, down from the previous P3 billion; P1.5 billion to pay its existing debt, down from P2 billion; equity investments in both FamilyMart and Wellworth department stores at P146.3 million and P253.8, respectively; and P395.7 million for other corporate purposes, down significantly from P2.45 billion.
BPI Capital Corp., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd., Singapore branch and Credit Suisse (Singapore) Ltd. were tapped as the deal’s global coordinators and bookrunners.
SSI was first established in 1987 to operate the specialty-retail operations of the Rustan’s Group, controlled by the Tantoco family. Starting with Lacoste, then Salvatore Ferragamo and Marks and Spencer, SSI hastened its growth in 1995 by adding brands, such as Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Kenneth Cole, Burberry, Tod’s, Bottega Veneta, YSL, Hugo Boss, Banana Republic, Massimo Dutti, Tory Burch and Old Navy.
SSI President Anthony Huang earlier said the company may not be able to launch its IPO by next month as Securities and Exchange Commission still has to approve its IPO.
“At this point, we’re hopeful that we can do it the soonest possible time. We’re going through the process, and we’re unable to give an exact date but we’re hoping sooner rather than later,” Huang said.
According to the original schedule of SSI, the company should have completed its pricing of the offer shares by October 20, with the listing date of its shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange starting on November 5.
“Our plans will definitely remain on the Philippine market. There are still many opportunities that we wanted to take advantage of. We have both existing and new businesses that we want to build as part of our portfolio, taking into account the many real-estate opportunities that are in the market. There’s a lot of expansion in store for us,” Huang said.