THE Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. has approved the P1.5-billion stock-rights offering of chemical trader SBS Philippines Corp., which the company said it will start offering to investors by the end of the month.
SBS Philippines said it will offer some 302-million worth of common shares for the stock-rights offering. The company will offer the shares at P4.97 apiece, or a 17-percent discount from its current trading price of P6 per share.
The company is selling one rights share for every 4.1325 common shares held as of record date on November 17. It is set to start the offer on November 27 through December 5.
The final offer price and entitlement rate will be determined on November 10, the company said.
“The net proceeds from the offer will be used by the company to support the capital requirements of its subsidiary, SBS Holdings and Enterprises Corp. (P1.2 billion) to pursue investment opportunities in property-related assets and businesses and provide for general working capital requirements of the company (P292 million),” the company said.
SBS Philippines said it will issue a stock-rights offering of up to 302 million common shares of its unissued shares, while the subsequent offerings of about 500 million shares more, will come from the increase in authorized capital stock of SBS.
The company, which intended to diversify into property development, said it needed to revise the structure of its rights offering “to the best interest of the corporation.”
In June the company’s board approved a rights offering of up to 845.48 million common shares, which came partially from unissued shares, and also from an increase in its authorized capital stock.
SBS Holdings acquires property assets, many of which comes from the land holdings of the Sytengco family.
The company’s diversification strategy on property development, however, only involves small ownership stake in firms investing in real estate.
SBS Philippines said the strategy to go into small ownership rather than having a majority control over the projects is meant to have more diversified interests in different property holdings at a lower capital requirement and risk exposure.
For instance, the company said its newly incorporated associate called Joine Holdings Corp. is set to conclude the purchase of a prime commercial property located along Edsa in Barangay Wack Wack, Mandaluyong, and having an area of approximately 2,371 square meters.