West zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. has priced its initial public offering (IPO) at P15 per share, which will make it the second largest IPO in the Philippines to date.
At the said price, which the company disclosed on Tuesday, Maynilad’s IPO will yield about P34.35 billion or $588 million.
Monde Nissin Corp.’s IPO in 2021 was the country’s largest at P48.6 billion.
Maynilad is offering a total of 2.29 billion shares, consisting of a primary offer of 1.66 billion new common shares, a preferential offer to First Pacific Co. of 24.9 million new shares, an upsize option of 354.7 million secondary shares owned by existing shareholders and an overallotment option of up to 249.05 million shares.
The offer period will run from October 23 to October 29, with listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange set on November 7.
Maynilad’s offering is only the second IPO of the country so far, as jittery market conditions have prompted other companies to put their IPO plans on the back burner.
The water utility’s IPO is pushing through after it clinched a deal with cornerstone investors who would take in more than half of the offered shares.
Sources said the cornerstone investors will be taking up more than 50 percent of the offered shares, equivalent to about 30 percent of Maynilad’s outstanding shares post-IPO.
Cornerstone investors will be led by the International Finance Corp. and the Asian Development Bank, according to the company’s prospectus.
The water firm also signed cornerstone investment agreements with 10 more international and domestic institutions led by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, acting through its Mobilising Capital through Listed Products (MOBILIST).
The international cornerstone investors are led by MOBILIST and includes abrdn Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Maven Investment Partners Ltd-Hong Kong Branch, Maybank Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd., Robeco Switserland Ltd. and QRT Master Fund SPC-Torus Fund SP.
The domestic cornerstone investors, meanwhile, were BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., BDO Capital and Investment Corp. and Security Bank Corporation-Trade and Asset Management Group.
Maynilad said each of the cornerstone investors have entered into a cornerstone investment agreement with the firm and the international underwriters or lead domestic underwriter to purchase offer shares at the determined offer price.
IFC is investing up to $100 million at a subscription price of up to P15 per share while ADB is consider an investment of $145 million also at the same price,
Robeco is investing up to $20 million with no indicated maximum price while MOBILIST and BDO Capital are subscribing at up to P15 per share with no committed amount. No committed amount or maximum price have been disclosed for the other cornerstone investors.