STA. LUCIA Land, Inc. (SLI) is postponing its planned P8.4-billion follow-on offering (FOO), which was scheduled next month, as it assesses the current market conditions.
In a letter dated Oct. 28, the listed property developer informed the Securities and Exchange Commission of its decision to defer the follow-on offering.
“Upon further consideration and extensive discussions between the company and China Bank Capital Corp…, the parties agreed that it would be in the best interest of the issuer and its stakeholders to defer the FOO,” SLI said.
“The decision to defer the (follow-on offering) is primarily due to the current market conditions which has been recently volatile,” the company added.
China Bank Capital is the issue manager, underwriter and bookrunner for SLI’s planned offering.
SLI filed the registration statement for its FOO with the SEC in August. It was looking to issue up to 3 billion common shares to the public, composed of 2.7 billion primary offer shares with an over-allotment option of 300 million shares.
Price per share would range between P2.26 and P2.80, which will generate about P6.78 billion to P8.4 billion for the company.
Based on its earlier timetable, SLI would set the issue price by Nov. 12, conduct the offer from Nov. 18 to 29 and list on Dec. 9.
At that time, SLI said it was expecting to net P8.12 billion from the follow-on offering, provided it maximizes the over-allotment option and sells at the high end of the share price range.
From the proceeds, it said P6.78 billion will be allotted to beef up the company’s capital expenditures, P820 million for acquisition of land and P517.79 million for general corporate purposes.
SLI is allocating P20 billion in the next three years for capital expenditures. It is expecting to generate P20 billion in reservation sales from its pipeline of 28 residential and commercial projects and five condominium and hotel projects.
The company booked an attributable net income of P883.74 million in the 1st semester, 104% up from a year ago, as gross revenues grew 70% to P3.5 billion. — Denise A. Valdez
