| THE Securities and Exchange Commission en banc is expected to approve today the application of broadcasting firm GMA Network Inc. to go public next month.
A well-placed source at the commission said the pending approval “ranks as one of the urgent matters in the agenda of the en banc’s regular meeting”.
The approval greenlights the plan of GMA Network to sell up to 91.35 million common shares to local investors at P7 to P8.50 per share. The final offer price will be determined on July 14, while the listing of shares will be on July 30.
GMA Network will also sell up to 822.12 million Philippine Deposit Receipts (PDRs) to both local and foreign investors at the same price. Of these, 91.35 million will be offered on behalf of the company and 730.77 million on behalf of certain existing shareholders.
A PDR gives the holder the right to ownership of specific shares, with proceeds from the sale, as well as rights offer and dividends accruing to the holder.
GMA Network said the P6.4-billion to P7.8-billion proceeds that will be raised from the sale will finance its expansion plans over the next two years.
The company has commissioned Deutsche Bank as bookrunner and lead manager for the international offering, while ATR Kim Eng Capital Partners Inc. will handle the domestic sale.
A long-time rival of the Lopez-controlled ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., GMA Network reported earlier a 22-percent rise in net profit for the first quarter to P421 million on the back of a 9-percent growth in gross revenues.
In a statement, GMA Network said airtime revenues of both GMA 7 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 with its results from the first quarter of last year.
Increase in year-to-date operating expenses, meanwhile, was limited to six percent at P1.155 billion and 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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