Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said Tuesday it raised P8.9 billion through an overnight top-up offering and plans to borrow another P10 billion to reduce debt and finance toll road and rail businesses.
Metro Pacific said in a disclosure to the stock exchange major shareholder Metro Pacific Holdings Inc. had placed out and sold 1.812 billion common shares at P4.90 each to local and overseas investors.
Metro Pacific Holdings will subscribe to the same number of shares to be issued by Metro Pacific at the same price.
The price represents a 6.5-percent discount to the closing price of Metro Pacific shares on Monday and 2.75 percent discount to the stock’s 30-day volume weighted average share price as of of Feb. 9
The company said the placement generated strong interest from institutional investors in Asia, especially in the Philippines, as well as Europe and the US
As result of the transaction, MPHI’s stake in Metro Pacific dropped to 52.13 percent from 55.8 percent.
The company said it would allot P5.1 billion from the proceeds of the P8.9-billion capital raising to reduce relatively expensive debt of Metro Pacific and Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc., P2.1 billion for investment in rail business and P1.6 billion for expansion of the toll road business.
“With recent developments in our new investment in Vietnam, accelerating progress in the Philippines in our roads, specifically the SCTEX, together with rail and further PPP opportunities ahead of us we decided now was the time to embark on an equity raising,” Metro Pacific president and chief executive Jose Ma. Lim said.
The transaction also aims to strengthen and broaden the capital base of Metro Pacific, and promote a wider dispersion of the common shares of the company.
Metro Pacific is one of the leading an infrastructure development firms in the Philippines. It is the country’s largest toll road operator and water distributor and along with an affiliate controls the country’s largest electricity distributor.
It is also the largest hospital operator in the Philippines and controls the concession for the LRT 1 light-rail project in Manila.
Metro Pacific has earmarked P53.6 billion in capital expenditures for this year, consisting of P17.5 billion for water utility unit Maynilad Water Services Inc., P10.2 billion for the toll road unit Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., P14.7 billion for Manila Electric Co., P2.3 billion for the hospital business and P9 billion for the LRT 1 Extension project.
.jpg){kind=small}
