Synergy Grid and Development Philippines, Inc. (SGP) successfully listed the shares from its P13.8 billion follow-on offering (FOO) on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
The stock closed 5 percent higher at P12.60 per share from its FOO price of P12.00 apiece. SGP offered 1.05 billion common shares with an overallotment option of up to 101 million common shares.
The FOO shares are new unissued shares while the shares for the overallotment option will come from selling shareholders Henry Sy, Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.
Leading the listing event and bell-ringing ceremony at the trading floor are SGP President and CEO Paul P. Sagayo and PSE President Ramon S. Monzon.
SGP Chairman Henry Sy, Jr. and Vice-Chairman Robert Coyiuto, Jr. also participated in the event online, together with other executives from SGP, PSE, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and other partner institutions instrumental in the said listing.
Monzon said SGP’s allotment of FOO shares for local small investors was oversubscribed noting that, “While companies doing an FOO are not required to include an LSI component in their offering, SGP was generous enough to grant PSE’s request to set aside 5 percent of its FOO offering for LSIs.”
“Adding an LSI component to this FOO instantly broadened the investor base of SGP, to include more retail investors who would not have otherwise been able to buy shares in SGP, because of the overwhelming demand from institutional investors,” said Monzon.
He added that, “The warm reception to SGP’s FOO by institutional and retail investors alike clearly indicates their desire to be part owners, even if only through SGP’s 40 percent indirect ownership in the sole power transmission operator in the country, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (or NGCP), given the potential high yield from NGCP’s highly profitable power transmission business.”
“Synergy Grid is very excited to be doing this follow on offering on the Philippine Stock Exchange today. As the indirect controlling shareholder of NGCP, this milestone marks SGP’s dedication and commitment to fulfill NGCP's mandate as the sole power transmission service provider in the Philippines,” said Sagayo.
NGCP is the sole and exclusive operator of the Philippines’ transmission network, linking power generators and distribution utilities to deliver electricity to end-users nationwide.
The Company will use the proceeds of the FOO to directly subscribe to non-voting preferred shares that will be issued by NGCP.
Proceeds from the issuance of the non-voting preferred shares will be used by NGCP to finance its capital expenditure requirements and related cost and expenses.
In the next 13 years, NGCP is committed to invest approximately P440 billion across 211 projects which are aimed to support the growing electricity demand in the country and to make the country’s power backbone continuously reliable.