Office landlord Filinvest REIT Corp.—controlled by the family of billionaire Mercedes Gotianun—is proceeding with its initial public offering even as food manufacturing giant Del Monte Philippines pulled its IPO due to volatile market conditions.
Banking on the booming demand for office space from the business process outsourcing industry, Filinvest REIT will proceed to list on the Philippine bourse on August 12 as planned, a company representative told Forbes Asia.
The office landlord planned to raise up to 12.6 billion pesos ($254 million) through the IPO by selling as much as 1.8 billion shares—including an overallotment option of up to 163.4 million shares—at 7 pesos a piece. Subscription details of the maiden share sale, which closed yesterday, are not yet available.
Filinvest REIT owns and manages a portfolio of 16 office buildings in the Northgate Cyberzone, an IT industrial park developed by Filinvest Land in the southern Manila suburb of Alabang, as well as an office tower in the Cebu Cyberzone in the central Philippine island of Cebu. The assets are resilient despite the pandemic, with Filinvest REIT’s revenues from its 17 office buildings rising 8% to 3.1 billion pesos in 2020 compared to the previous year.
Filinvest REIT’s IPO is one of two maiden share sales slated this month in the Philippines. Del Monte Philippines, known for its pineapple-based products and sauces, was scheduled to list on August 23 after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the offering last month.
However, with the surge of Covid-19 infections in the Philippines and across the region triggering market volatility in recent weeks, parent Del Monte Pacific said it decided to delay the IPO of Del Monte Philippines.
“The board believes that it’s in the best interests of the company, its shareholders and potential investors to defer the listing until conditions improve,” Del Monte Pacific said in a statement on Wednesday. “The board remains committed to listing Del Monte Philippines and continues to believe strongly in the growth and resilience of its business. During this time, the company will continue discussions with potential investors and strategic partners that have expressed interest during the IPO process.”
This is not the first Del Monte Pacific pulled the plug on the IPO of its Philippine subsidiary. In 2018, the company cancelled the maiden share sale, citing adverse market conditions at the time.
Del Monte Philippines had planned raise as much as 44 billion pesos from the maiden share sale, including the over-allotment option. That makes it the country’s second-largest IPO this year after Monde Nissin, which raised 55.9 billion pesos from its market debut in June.
The Philippines is seeing an IPO boom this year, with the country’s stock exchange recording over 122 billion pesos in capital raised through IPOs and sale of existing shares in the first half of this year, surpassing the 104 billion pesos reported for the entire 2020.