Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. said Wednesday it postponed its planned P20-billion preferred shares offering.
San Miguel said in a disclosure to the stock exchange that the start of the public offering of the P20-billion preferred shares originally slated on Nov. 18 would be moved to a later date.
“The company will advise the exchange of the adjusted timetable in due course,” San Miguel said.
The company did not disclose the reason for the delay, but industry sources said the offer period was postponed because of additional requirements being requested by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Under the plan, San Miguel will issue 133.333 million Series 2-K preferred shares with an oversubscription option of another 133.33 million preferred shares with an initial dividend rate of 4.5 percent per annum. The shares will be sold at P75 apiece.
This will be second and last tranche of preferred shares to be issued by San Miguel under its shelf registration program approved by the SEC.
The initial dividend rate of 4.5 percent per annum is lower compared to the 4.75 percent per annum initial dividend rate when San Miguel issued 266.666 million Series 2-J preferred shares last month.
Net proceeds from the fund raising activity will used to repay fully or partially repay any of the existing obligation, fund additional investments in the airport and airport-related projects of the company and in Bank of Commerce.
The conglomerate engaged BDO Capital & Investment Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., PNB Capital and Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. as joint issue managers, lead underwriters and book runners for the offering.
San Miguel recorded a 73-percent decline in net profit in the first three quarters to P10.75 billion from P39.7 billion in the same period last year.
Net sales from January to September also went down by 30 percent to P531.1 billion from P758.6 billion a year ago.
The group said, however, it saw signs of recovery after it posted P15-billion net income in the third quarter, a turnaround from the P4-billion net loss recorded in the first half.
