The Philippines: San Miguel Corp. to raise up to P20 bln from issuance of perpetual preferred shares in October

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. disclosed a plan to raise up to P20 billion from the issuance of perpetual preferred shares in October, the Manila Standard reported on August 19.

San Miguel said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the registration of 533.33 million Series 2 preferred shares to be issued over a period of three years.

It said it would issue 133.33 million preferred shares for the initial tranche, with an oversubscription of another 133.33 million preferred shares at an offering price of P75 per share.
The company plans to use net proceeds from the offering to invest in core subsidiaries San Miguel Food & Beverage Inc., Petron Corp., SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., San Miguel Holdings Corp. and San Miguel Properties Inc.. and for general corporate purposes.

The conglomerate tentatively set the offering period on Sept. 29 to Oct. 9, 2020 and the issue and listing date on Oct. 20, 2020.

San Miguel tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., Philippine Commercial Capital Inc., PNB Capital and Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. as joint issue managers and underwriters for the offering.

San Miguel reported a P4-billion net loss in the first half, a turnaround from the P26.1-billion income in the same period last year, as the pandemic affected operations of core businesses.
First-half revenues declined 31 percent to P352.8 billion as consolidated operating income plunged 74 percent to P14.9 billion.

The conglomerate said signs of recovery emerged with the easing of quarantine restrictions and reopening of the economy.

“With the government’s easing of restrictions on transportation, the operation of business establishments, and consumption of alcoholic beverages, we’ve been recovering a lot of lost ground,” said San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang.

“Recovery started around second half of May to June, when government gradually restarted our economy and kept it going,” Ang said.

20 August, 2020