FLI expects to make P5B from additional shares

By Honey Madrilejos-Reyes

Reporter

FILINVEST Land Inc. (FLI), the residential property unit of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), is expected to raise P5 billion its follow-on offering this month.            

FLI said the price per share would be based on the weighted-average trading price of FLI for 10 consecutive trading days ending January 19. A 10-percent discount would then be inputted into final computation of the share price for the follow-on offering. FLI closed at P1.82 on Tuesday's trading.             

A source privy to the financial aspect of the offering said half of the proceeds would fund residential projects lined up this year. The rest would fund the Northgate Cyberzone, a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) building in Alabang. A condotel in Cebu and a mid-rise development project within Metro Manila would also benefit money to be made in this offering.     

"All these projects would begin construction this year and the target proceeds from the offering would serve as the company's capital expenditure," the source said in an interview late Monday.       

The P5-billion proceeds would be generated solely by the sale of 3.7 billion primary shares to both domestic and foreign investors. These form part of the total 5.4 billion offering, which also involves 1.7 billion secondary shares to be sold by the company's existing shareholder, Filinvest Alabang Inc.                

FLI started its international roadshow yesterday, which would make presentations to prospective investors in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and some parts of the United States.

Ninety-five percent or up to 5.13 billion of shares would be sold to foreign investors. The balance of five percent, about 270 million shares, would be sold to the stock exchange's trading participants.     

In case warranted by demand, there would be an over-allotment option of up to 809,852,590 shares that the company may sell on top of the 5.4 billion shares.        

Trading of FLI shares would be stopped for 11 successive trading days beginning January 22. The listing of the additional shares and the resumption of trading would be on February 6.           

Listed at the stock exchange since October 1993, the sale of additional FLI shares and eventual listing this year is another major event in the capital market. FLI is considered as one of the country's leading real estate developers, providing a wide range of real estate products to customers from diverse income segments.

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