PUREGOLD Price Club Inc., the grocery-chain operator led by businessman Lucio Co, on Thursday said it raised P4.7 billion from a top-up placement deal.
The company said in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it sold 104 million common shares at P45 apiece.
The price is equivalent to a 6.8-percent discount from its last close of P48.30 on January 16.
The company said it completed the placement upon approval by its board of directors.
The shares represent about 3.8 percent of the company’s total issued and outstanding stock.
“The deal was done via an overnight book built offering with Mr. Lucio L. Co as the sole selling shareholder,” it said.
The shares sold by Co represent part of his indirect holdings at the company lodged with Deutsche Regis Partners Inc.
Co signed a subscription agreement to subscribe to the same number of Puregold shares and price per share.
The company said it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, capital expenditure and potential acquisitions.
Deutsche Bank AG acted as the placing agent for the transaction.
Puregold reported a consolidated net income of P4.62 billion for the three quarters of 2018, an 18-percent increase from last year’s P3.9 billion.
Its stores registered stronger than expected same store sales growth of 5.8 percent during the period, while S and R registered an SSSG of 8.8 percent.
“We are optimistic we will be able to sustain our SSSG in the last quarter of 2018 to be driven by higher consumer spending fueled by higher levels of take-home pay as a result of the tax reform law,” the company said.