| BEFORE embarking on a public offering in the second semester, broadcast giant GMA Network Inc. said Wednesday its board has elected former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban as its independent director. Panganiban joins the network’s board of directors, which include Felipe L. Gozon, Gilberto R. Duavit Jr., Joel Marcelo G. Jimenez, Judith R. Duavit-Vazquez, Atty. Anna-Teresa M. Gozon-Abrogar, Felipe S. Yalong, and Laura J. Westfall.
The company also announced the new list of various committees of its board of directors including the nomination committee with Duavit as chairman; compensation and remuneration committee chaired by Judith D. Vasquez; and the audit committee led by Gozon.
GMA’s planned public offering this year has been generating anticipation from the market. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it said it is targeting to generate between P6.39 billion to P7.78 billion from the shares offer and the sale of Philippine depositary receipts.
A long-time rival of the Lopez-controlled ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., GMA said it plans to sell some 91.346 million common shares via the IPO and 822.12 million shares to international fund managers at P7-P8.50 per share.
Proceeds from the sale would be used to fund its capital requirements for this year and 2008, amounting to a combined P2 billion.
GMA has commissioned Deutsche Bank to be the bookrunner and lead manager for the international offering, while ATR Kim Eng Capital Partners Inc. will handle the domestic sale.
The company recently reported a 22-percent rise in net profit for the first quarter to P421 million as gross revenues improved by 9 percent to P2.494 billion.
In a statement, the network said airtime revenues of both GMA7 and QTV-11 posted improvements from the same quarter of last year. QTV’s first quarter gross revenue is 48-percent higher compared to the first quarter of 2006, while revenue from the network’s international operations—GMA Pinoy TV and syndication—grew 89 percent compared to the first quarter of last year.
Increase in year-to-date operating expenses, meanwhile, was limited to six percent at P1.155-billion driven primarily by GMA-7’s higher production cost and ads and promo mainly for new programs launched this period—Asian Treasures, Super Twins, Kwento ni Lola Basyang, Muli, Lupin and Sine Totoo. This was partly offset by the production cost of QTV, which slid by 8 percent due to cost efficiency and programming strategies.
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