Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. plans to conduct a tender offer on the minority shares of Holcim Philippines Inc. after the Philippine Competition Commission cleared the acquisition.
San Miguel said in a disclosure to the stock exchange unit First Stronghold Cement Industries Inc. aimed to conduct a mandatory tender offer to purchase the remaining 920.553 million shares in HPI, representing 14.27 percent of the company’s total outstanding stock held by the public.
San Miguel earlier signed a deal to purchase 5.51 billion shares of HPI owned by Holderfin B.V. Cemco Holdings Inc. and Union Cement Holdings Corp., equivalent to a combined 85.73-percent stake in HPI, for $2.15 billion.
San Miguel said the acquisition of HPI shares by FSCII was subject to the mandatory tender offer provision of the Securities Regulation Code.
The conduct of the tender offer of shares of HPI, meanwhile, is dependent on the approval of the PCC.
“The other terms of the tender offer, including the tender offer price, shall be announced separately on the date of the commencement of the tender offer which will be made only after PCC approval of the transaction. In this connection, FSCII has the resources to implement the offer in full pursuant to the terms of the tender offer, San Miguel said.
PCC on Sept 6 said it would further review San Miguel’s takeover of HPI, after initial investigation indicated that the deal might affect competition in some markets.
Meanwhile, HPI recently inaugurated 11 new storage and loading facilities that will improve the ability of its plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
The company said the new facilities would improve the plant’s storage capacity and speed up packing and loading of products on trucks.
The Norzagaray cement plant primarily serves the National Capital Region and Central Luzon, where construction industries grew by double-digits in 2018, according to government data.
The company also inaugurated in March and August new facilities in its Bacnotan, La Union and Davao City plants, respectively.
“This is the third site we are holding inauguration activities this year as our company continues investments to strengthen our ability to support our customers nationwide,” HPI president and chief executive John Stull said.
“This is part of our greater commitment to provide a reliable supply of cement especially at this time of strong construction activity, which we will continue to meet to contribute to building a better future for the Philippines,” he added.