SHAREHOLDERS of convenience-store operator Philippine Seven Corp., which holds the master franchise of 7-Eleven stores in the country, approved the company’s increase in capital stock.
The company is set to increase its authorized capital by P1 billion, from P600 million to P1.6 billion, consisting of an additional 1 billion common shares with par value of P1 per share.
Company officials said it will now submit the necessary documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission for the increase in authorized capital after the approval during its annual stockholders’ meeting last Friday.
The company said it needed the increase as it already used up P458 million of its P600 million paid-up capital as the company grows.
Philippine Seven said it is allotting P3.5 billion for capital expenditures this year for the renovation of existing stores, as well as for the opening of new outlets to as many as 400, as it continues to fend off competition, many of which have already lost their steam of expanding aggressively in the country.
Company President Jose Victor Paterno said half of the intended store openings are in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“This is about the same number of stores we opened last year,” he said, adding they have a lot more areas to cover in the Visayas and Mindanao, although their Metro Manila market continues to grow.
“We expect above-average growth to continue in both the Visayas and Mindanao as we continue to fill in our footprint in the islands,” he said.
Paterno added the firm is also planning to renovate 100 of its existing stores as it improves in-store services and introduce more new products with the aim of increasing same-store sales growth.
The company was able to fend off its competition as a number of convenience-store brands that previously promised to expand aggressively in the country have either slowed down their store openings or already closed down some of the newly opened branches.
Philippine Seven also closed down about a dozen stores last year, but Paterno said the number of store closures may be limited to about three to four this year.
Its closest competition is Mini Stop, which has less than 500 branches, followed by FamilyMart with 78 branches, AllDay of the Villar family has about 50, while Lawson and Circle K have a handful of stores already opened.
7-Eleven, meanwhile, has more than 2,000 branches and expects to end the year with 2,400.
“We are now happy with what we have and will now be more focused on increasing same-store sales and profitability,” Paterno said.
