ABS-CBN Corp. said Friday it is raising fresh funds from the sale of shares to finance digital initiatives and content production.
The media and entertainment company of the Lopez Group said its board approved the sale of 21,322,561 treasury shares and 27,828,645 PDRs to interested qualified institutional buyers at P15.23 for each common share or PDR.
It said the price approved by the board was determined based on a 12 percent premium over the closing price of the ABS-CBN share on Jan. 20.
The company said the selling price would represent a 19-percent premium over the 30-day volume weighted average price of the common shares.
“In the event that none of the shares are taken up by the institutional buyers, Lopez Inc. is willing to purchase up to P500 million of such shares and PDRs at the same price,” ABS-CBN said.
ABS-CBN corporate communications head Kane Errol Choa said the proceeds from the share sale would be used for digital initiatives, content production and other general corporate purposes.
The company incurred a net loss of P3.8 billion in the first three quarters of 2020, down from P7.3-billion loss in the same period in 2019.
Consolidated revenues went fell 25.2 percent to P12.7 billion as advertising revenues tumbled 35.5 percent in the absence of free-to-air advertising space after the cease-and-desist order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission.
Consumer sales were also affected by the CDO as this prohibited the company from engaging in Sky Cable’s DTH services and distribution of TV Plus boxes.
The impact of COVID-19 outbreak also resulted in the cessation of various ancillary operations such as Heroes Burger, Kidzania Manila and Studio XP.
