The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the initial public offering (IPO) of construction firm Datem Inc. and Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., the retail arm of the Gaisano family, with a combined proceeds of P10 billion.
According to its registration statement, Datem hopes to raise as much as P4.65 billion through its offer of up to 329.04-million primary and secondary shares, with an offer price of up to P14.15 per share. The offer consists of up to 286.12 million shares and 42.91 million optional shares, as part of its overallotment option.
Proceeds from the public offering is intended to fund its expansion activities in construction, housing and bulk water. “Datem has, over its 30-year existence, successfully established itself as a reliable and reputable constructor, and has developed a wide range of residential and commercial projects for various clients. The company is geared for bullish growth in the construction industry and in its subsidiary businesses,” Levy Espiritu, the company’s president, said in a statement.
On the other hand, Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. will issue as much as 3.44 billion common shares at an offer price of P6.10 apiece, or a total proceeds of P5.28 billion.
There will be 920 million common shares to be sold by primary offering and an overallotment of 92 million.
The remaining 2.43 billion will not be included in the offer.
“The majority of the net proceeds of the IPO will fund capital expenditures in connection with the establishment of new stores. The remainder of the net proceeds will fund the establishment of a consolidated logistics and distribution center in the province of Cebu and working capital requirements,” the company said.
Metro Retail said it plans to open at least seven stores next year, securing 10 sites for stores that are expected to open through 2017. It said there will be two stores in Central Visayas, one in Eastern Visayas, five stores in Western Visayas and two stores in Metro Manila.
There are 30 new sites under evaluation, located in the Visayas and Luzon. Frank Gaisano, the company’s chairman and CEO, earlier said that the company has to grow outside of Cebu, where the company started its operations, despite many bigger Manila-based firms expanding in the province and putting up big projects mainly in Cebu Metropolitan Area.
“We can say Cebu is close to saturation [point], that’s our perspective. In one location, one city, for instance, in a span of two cities, we have opened 10 stores. I think Cebu is close to saturation,” Gaisano said.