THE country’s oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corp., plans to raise some P15 billion via a follow-on offering of up to 7.5 million preferred “B” shares, right after raising P2.2 billion from the sale of treasury shares.
Ayala said that the secondary offering, approved by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday, would consist of a base offer of 5 million cumulative, nonconvertible, nonparticipating, nonvoting, redeemable and peso-denominated perpetual preferred shares.
Approved last June by its executive committee, the offer and re-issuance of preferred “B” shares comes with an oversubscription option of up to 2.5 million shares with a par value of P100 each and an offer price up to P2,000 apiece.
Ayala said it expected to raise P9.9 billion from the base offer. Should the oversubscription option be fully exercised, it expects to raise approximately P14.89 billion from the exercise.
Proceeds will be used to fund the redemption of P15 billion class “B” preferred shares, payable on November 29.
The offer period will run from October 1 to October 7, while the issuance and listing of the preferred shares on the PSE is set for October 15.
Ayala informed the bourse on Thursday that the initial dividend rate of the preferred shares would be 6.0538 percent.
“The offer shares are expected to be reissued and recorded in the name of accepted applicants and listed on the PSE on October 15, 2024, or on such other date as may be agreed upon between the issuer and the joint lead underwriters and bookrunners,” Ayala said in its prospectus.
BPI Capital Corp. (BPI Capital), BDO Capital and Investment Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., PNB Capital and Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. were tapped as joint lead underwriters and bookrunners for the offering.
BPI Capital will also serve as the sole issue manager, while PSE trading participants and First Metro Investment Corp. were tapped as the selling agents.
As of end-December 2023, Ayala’s treasury shares included 6.8 million preferred A shares amounting to P675.5 million and 28 million preferred B shares amounting to P2.8 billion, or a total of approximately P3.47 billion.
In a separate disclosure, Ayala said that its executive committee on Wednesday approved the sale of 3,070,150 treasury common shares at a price of not less than P720 per share, for a total of approximately P2.21 billion.
The block sale was executed on Thursday.
On Thursday, Ayala shares were up P10.50, or 1.52 percent, at P703 each amid a 1.31-percent rise for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.
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