A GROUP of three local firms and two businessmen is doing a P64.99-million tender offer of 279.15 million common shares in listed Steniel Manufacturing Corp.

The company told the exchange on Tuesday that its shares are being tendered by Greenkraft Corp., Golden Bales Corp., Corbox Corp., and a certain Rex Chua and Clement O. Chua.

The group is eyeing to buy the company’s shares from public shareholders at 10 centavos each. The tender offer period is scheduled from Oct. 12 to Nov. 10, with the closing date set on Nov. 23.

“The purpose of the private transactions requiring the conduct of this tender offer is for the group, with their extensive experience in the paper industry, to acquire control of Steniel and extend their expertise for the expansion and growth of the paper manufacturing business,” the investors said in a tender offer report disclosed by Steniel on Tuesday.

Shares in Steniel were suspended from trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange since July 2006, when it closed at 26 centavos apiece.

Steniel is in the business of manufacturing and selling paper products, paper board and corrugated carton containers. It has an authorized capital stock of P1 billion composed of 1 billion common shares priced P1 each.

The investors that want to buy the company’s shares are all originating from the Philippines. In the tender offer report, Greenkraft was described as a Pampanga-based business involved in trading craft roll, Golden Bales is a Davao-based business involved in buying and selling paper products, and Corbox is a Cebu-based general merchant. Rex and Clement Chua are both Iloilo-based businessmen, and the latter is a director at Greenkraft.

On Oct. 7, the group signed a share purchase agreement with the listed firm’s parent Steniel (Netherlands) Holdings B.V. The deal involves the sale of 649,908,308 common shares in listed Steniel at 10 centavos each, for a total consideration of P64.99 million. This makes up 64.99% of Steniel’s outstanding capital stock.

Some 279,151,088 common shares comprising 27.91% of the company’s outstanding capital stock will be bought through a tender offer. The remaining 70,940,604 common shares will be bought through a private sale.

BDO Securities Corp. has been tapped as the tender offer agent for the P64.99-million offering.

Last year, Steniel and the investors agreed on a share-swap transaction exchanging the investors’ 269,500,000 common shares in Steniel Mindanao Packaging Corp. for common shares in the listed firm.

Some P11.47 million loans to Greenkraft were also converted to 11.47 million common shares in Steniel, which entailed increasing the company’s capital stock to P1 billion.

In the first six months of 2020, Steniel’s attributable net loss was trimmed to P811,000 from P1.21 million a year ago. Its consolidated revenues slid 2.4% to P31.21 million. – Denise A. Valdez

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