By Jenniffer B. Austria | Oct. 19,
2014 at 11:01pm [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
Property developer ProFriends Group
Inc. plans to sell up to 20 percent of the total shares under the planned
initial public offering next month to cornerstone investors.
ProFriends Group plans to raise up to
P7.7 billion in proceeds in the IPO which would involve the sale of 385.750
million shares at P20 apiece.
Roberto Juanchito Dispo, president of
First Metro Investments Corp., one of the underwriters for the IPO, said
ProFriends recently completed the presentations to various fund groups
including insurance companies, mutual funds and asset managers.
He said ProFriends also planned to
hold a roadshow over the next two weeks in Hong Kong and Singapore to attract
institutional investors.
“The maximum [that we will be selling
to key cornerstone investors] will be 10 to 20 percent of the offer shares,”
Dispo said.
“We would like to believe that
ProFriends offers better investment value proposition. Out of all the companies
going public, this is the most profitable,” Dispo said.
Dispo said ProFriends was poised to
generate P6 billion in net income this year, up from P3.4 billion in 2013. Profit was forecast to hit P7.5 billion in
2015.
ProFriends plans to use proceeds from
the IPO to finance several real estate projects in Cavite, Iloilo and Cagayan
de Oro as well as acquisition of land for future developments.
ProFriends said it would spent P3.1
billion for expansion, P2.48 billion in equity investment in Willamton Holdings
Inc. and P1.24 billion for acquisition of additional properties in Cavite,
Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro. Williamton is
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amicus Holdings which handles the in-house
financing requirements of Pro-Friends homebuyers.
ProFriends is also engaged in retail
and office leasing and consumer finance.
The company has built over 26,000 affordable housing units mostly in
Cavite and Iloilo since 1999.
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