| EQUITY raised by listed firms through various capital-raising activities went up 78 percent in the first semester to P45.39 billion from P25.5 billion a year earlier.
Data from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) shows the bulk of capital came from follow-on and stock rights offerings of companies. The same data shows a slack in equity from initial public offerings (IPOs) and private placements.
But PSE president Francis Lim is not worried about the drop in IPO proceeds. “We expect the figures for IPO proceeds to pick up dramatically in the coming months as we have a number of big IPOs in the pipeline,” Lim said.
These include the recent IPOs by Phoenix Petroleum, Aboitiz Power Corp. and the forthcoming sale of shares by GMA Network Inc.
Proceeds from two IPOs in the first half amounted to P2.92 billion, or 67.8 percent lower than P9.09-billion chalked up a year earlier. This year’s figures were from National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines’ P2.82-billion sale of primary shares and Pacific Online Systems Corp.’s sale of P104.78 million worth of primary shares.
Proceeds from private placements also fell to P80.47 million from P5.21 billion in the same comparable period. PhilWeb Corp. and Basic Petroleum were the gainers from this year’s placements.
Meanwhile, proceeds from the follow-on offerings went up 158.4 percent to P26.98 billion from P10.44 billion. The follow-on offerings allowed Filinvest Land Inc., to raise P5.92 billion; Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., P5.67 billion; Union Bank of the Philippines, P5.04 billion; and Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), P10.35 billion.
Equity from stock rights offerings hit P15.4 billion from January to June—roughly 20 times larger than P751.96 million in the first six months of 2006. These companies, along with the corresponding amount they raised in brackets, were Megaworld Corp. (P10.79 billon), EEI Corp. (P540 million), AGI (P3.11 billion) and Geograce Resources Philippines Inc. (P489.88 million).
“Stock prices, as tracked by the PSEi, continues to scale new highs; so expect more companies to take advantage of this positive development to raise needed funds by selling their shares to the public,” Lim said.
In another development, iRemit, the country’s largest Filipino-owned non-bank remittance company, is eyeing an IPO by the fourth quarter. First Metro Investment Corp. has been named as iRemit’s financial advisor, issue manager and underwriter for its shares offer.
iRemit plans to use money from the IPO to open new branches. It also wants to expand to new markets, and raise working capital to meet the increasing volume of remittances.
In the coming months, iRemit will intensify strategic marketing alliances and initiatives in countries with high density of Filipinos such as North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Established in 2001, iRemit has an existing network in 22 countries across North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, the Pacific Isles and the Middle East. It has 346 outlets, associates and agents worldwide, and more than 2,000 pay-out stations throughout the country.
***** | 
No comments:
Post a Comment