Dacon Corp., a company led by the Consunji family, plans to spend around P1.3 billion to acquire the remaining minority shares in Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. (CHP).
The recent surge in CHP’s share price, however, could reduce this expenditure.
CHP shares closed at P1.83 Wednesday, up 41 percent from the P1.30 tender offer price. The increase may lessen the total amount Dacon needs to spend during the tender offer as small shareholders may want to sell their shares based on the current market price.
The P1.30 tender office price is consistent with what Dacon, DMCI Holdings Inc. and Semirara Mining and Power Corp. paid when they acquired CHP from Cemex Asian South East Corp. (CASEC).
The Consunji Group earlier said they had no plans to delist CHP from the stock exchange following the acquisition. If minority shareholders choose not to participate in the tender offer, the public float of CHP will remain at 10 percent, which complies with the Philippine Stock Exchange’s minimum public ownership requirement.
The acquisition received an approval from the Philippine Competition Commission last month, and the deal is expected to close in November.
DMCI Holdings executive vice president and chief finance officer Herbert Consunji announced that CHP would commence testing of its new production line in Antipolo City, Rizal.
The new line is projected to add 1.5 million metric tons (MT) to CHP’s output, increasing its capacity to 7.2 million MT by end-2024 from 5.7 million MT.
Consunji said the average utilization rate of CHP’s cement plants remained below 50 percent. CHP is the country’s fourth-largest cement manufacturer.
CHP’s net loss widened to P2.42 billion in the first six months from a loss of P661.8 million in the same period last year as revenues declined 10.3 percent year-on-year to P8.15 billion.
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