SYNERGY Grid & Development Phils., Inc. has priced its final offer shares at the lowest end of its lowered offer price range of P12 to P17 apiece.

In Synergy Grid’s Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) filing on Friday, it said the company’s final price for its follow-on offering (FOO) of up to 1.15 billion shares is P12.

The company had lowered the price range of its FOO to between P12 to P17 from the previous P15 to P25 apiece.

“It’s already a sought-after FOO and having this price at the lower end of the price range may further drive interest,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message on Sunday.

Diversified Securities, Inc. Equity Trader Aniceto K. Pangan said in a separate phone message that the offer still “has room for price appreciation dependent on the containment of the virus that will dictate restrictions as we have not yet achieved herd immunity.”

OCTA Research fellow Fredegusto Guido P. David said in a social media post on Saturday that the National Capital Region’s weekly coronavirus case average went down to 996, or lower than 1,000 “for the first time since July 22 to 28” in the week of Oct. 18 to 23.

The country’s Health department on Thursday said the capital may soon be downgraded to Alert Level 2 from Alert Level 3 with the continuous decline of coronavirus cases.

Proceeds from the sale of Synergy Grid’s shares are estimated at P13.8 billion and will be used by the company as capital for National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to expand its network.

Synergy Grid owns 60% of NGCP, with the State Grid Corp. of China owning 40%.

The said share price may be attractive to investors, relative to the average price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of the power sector, according to Papa Securities Corp. Equities Strategist Manny P. Cruz.

“They recently reduced the offer price between P12 to 17 that will be around 6.3x to 9x forward PER, attractive relative to [the] average PER of [the] power sector at 11.2x.”

A higher PER indicates that investors are more willing to pay a higher price for shares due to growth expectations.

The said price will be offered from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2.

Synergy Grid’s shares were last traded at the local bourse on May 28, ending at P395.80 apiece.

Trading of its shares were suspended due to the firm’s noncompliance with the required minimum public ownership, based on the PSE’s rules. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago

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