Merrymart Consumer Corp., the grocery chain owned by businessman Edgar Sia II, plans to raise as much as P1.6 billion through an initial public offering to achieve its target of 1,200 stores by 2030.
Merrymart said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it would sell up to 1.59 billion common shares at a price of up to P1 apiece.
The company is pursuing a 2030 vision to have 1,200 stores operational nationwide, consisting of 200 Merrymart groceries and markets and 1,000 Merrymart outlets.
The company estimates that 1,200 stores would generate P120 billion in systemwide sales by 2030.
Merrymart operates and owns four Merrymart branches with an aggregate selling space of 5,316 square meters.
A total of 27 operating branches are expected by the second quarter this year and the 100th branch is expected to open by the fourth quarter of 2021 next year.
“Our family initially had no plans to expand the retail business, but our recent experiences made us realize the need for us to be in the modern retail business, and we believe we will be in it while the transition from traditional retail to modern retail is still ongoing,” said Sia, who chairs MerryMart Consumer Corp.
“We believe this step will further strengthen the market grip of all the industries that our group is involved in,” he added
The company based on the preliminary prospectus filed with the regulator plans to start the offering period on March 23 to March 27, 2020 and list the shares on April 2, 2020.
PNB Capital Corp. is the sole issue manager, lead underwriter and sole book runner of the offering.
Merrymart said it planned to cover all grocery retail categories from small, medium and large retail formats, namely Merrymart Store, Merrymart Market and Merrymart Grocery.
The group’s expansion is seen to create over 15,000 new jobs in the near term and boost the systemwide workforce to 50,000 by 2030.
“We would like to take advantage of our group’s knowhow in franchising, and our familiarity of the Philippine market terrain, just like in the rollout of Mang Inasal, CityMall, Hotel 101 and CentralHub network. We believe this step will further strengthen the market grip of all the industries that our group is involved in,” said Sia.