The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved the P29.7-billion initial public offering of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.
SEC commissioner Ephyro Luis Amatong said in an interview following an en banc meeting the commission gave its nod to the IPO, which could one be the largest maiden share offerings in the country.
“With approval by the commission today, the timeline suggested by Shell and its underwriter BPI Capital will still be completed by November,” Amatong said.
Amatong said Pilipinas Shell planned to push through with its IPO despite the current decline of the stock market.
Amatong said the commission also approved the request of the Pilipinas Shell to allow local small investors to purchase beyond the maximum P20,000 worth of shares.
“You have to understand that this is large IPO, so one of the things they requested is for local small investors to apply for more than the maximum of P20,000,” Amatong said.
Amatong said SEC approved the request provided that the oil company would initially satisfy all the requests from small local investors to purchase P20,000 worth of shares.
Based on the latest registration statement filed with SEC, Pilipinas Shell will sell up to 300 million primary and secondary shares with an over allotment option of up to 30 million shares at an offer price of up to P90 apiece.
Of the 300 million firm offer shares, 270 million are secondary shares to be sold by selling shareholder including Shell Overseas Investments B.V., The Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd., and Spathodea Campanulata Inc., while only 30 million are primary shares.
This means that the selling shareholders will receive P26.48 billion in net proceeds from the IPO while the company will get P2.7 billion which will be used to fund capital expenditures, working capital and other working capital and general corporate expenses.
The offer shares represent 18.6 percent of the company’s outstanding capital stock.
The oil firm hired J.P. Morgan as the global and international book runner while BPI Capital Corp. is the domestic lead underwriter and domestic book runner.