THE hospital group of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) filed on Wednesday a registration statement at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering, hoping to raise as much as P75.1 billion.
In its filing, Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. will have primary offer of 35.82 million common shares and a secondary offer of 381.27 million common shares with an overallotment option of up to 40.77 million common shares to be listed on the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
MPIC is the lone selling shareholder. At a maximum price of P182 per share, Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings expects to raise as much as P75.1 billion.
The proceeds are meant for investments in additional hospitals, cancer centers, clinics and new health-care businesses; additional investments in the group’s existing hospitals to support their growth; and general corporate purposes.
UBS AG, Singapore branch is the sole global coordinator, while Merrill Lynch (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., CLSA Ltd., JP Morgan Securities and UBS AG Singapore branch are the joint international book runners. First Metro Investment Corp. is the lead domestic coordinator.
FMIC, BDO Capital and Investments Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. are the local underwriters.
MPIC last month said it is spinning off its hospital group to ease some of the pressures brought about the rising cost of its debt to fund its expansion, which has been slowly eating up its income.
“The process to raise funding for MPIC, as well as for our hospitals group to support its continued expansion is proceeding well. Once this is completed within the year, we should see a reduction in MPIC’s interest cost and a consequent improved translation of operating profit growth into the bottom line,” MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said earlier.
MPIC’s core income was flat during the first half of the year to P8.7 billion from last year’s P8.6 billion as its high cost of debt ate up its profitability. For the second quarter alone, its income was down by 10 percent to P5.1 billion from last year’s P4.6 billion.
“The rise in our borrowing costs has largely offset the increased operating contribution as we continue to make major investments in our new road, water, energy and logistics projects. These will take some time to complete and begin contributing to earnings,” Jose Ma. K. Lim, the company’s president and CEO, said.