Toronto-listed multinational gold mining firm OceanaGold Corporation is divesting 20 percent of its stake in wholly-owned subsidiary OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. (OGPI) via a P7.88 billion initial public offering (IPO) as required by the government.

OceanaGold Philippines is the operator of the Didipio mine in Nueva Vizcaya. It is a modern, low-cost, long-life gold-copper mine that has been in commercial production since April 2013 and is held under a 25-year FTAA covering a large land package of approximately 7.50 square kilometers.

In its preliminary prospectus filed with regulators, OceanaGold said it is offering 456 million outstanding common shares owned by its parent company (out of its 2.28 billion total outstanding capital stock with a par value of 10 centavos per share) at an offer price of up to P17.28 per share.

All the common shares of OceanaGold Philippines will be listed on the Main Board of The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. under the trading symbol “OGP”.

OceanaGold has appointed BDO Capital & Investment Corporation to act as stabilizing agent and the investment house has set aside a stabilization fund of P788 million equivalent to approximately 10 percent of the IPO to conduct stabilization activities during a period beginning from the listing date and ending 30 calendar days from and including the listing date.

Upon completion of the IPO, the total issued and outstanding common shares will remain at 2.28 billion with the offer shares representing 20 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares.

OceanaGold Philippines will not receive any of the net proceeds of up to P7.80 billion to be raised from the sale of the offer shares as this will all go to the selling shareholder.

The firm said the offer and listing of its common shares on the PSE are being undertaken to comply with the conditions of the Company’s renewed Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) with the Government.

Up to 91.2 million offer shares (or 20 percent of the offer shares) are being offered in the Philippines through the PSE Trading Participants and up to 45.6 million (or 10 percent of the offer shares) are being offered in the Philippines to local small investors (LSI) under the Local Small Investors Program being implemented by the PSE.

At least 319.2 million offer shares (or approximately 70 percent) are being offered for sale outside the United States by the International Underwriter in offshore transactions and to certain qualified buyers as defined under the Securities Regulation Code of the Philippines and other investors in the Philippines by the Domestic Underwriter and Bookrunner.

BDO Capital has been tapped to be the Global Coordinator, the Domestic Underwriter, and Bookrunner while CLSA Limited is the International Underwriter for the IPO.

According to the records of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Didipio Mine was the second largest producer of gold and second largest producer of copper in the Philippines in 2022, producing 113.2 thousand ounces of gold.

The Didipio Mine is a highly profitable and cash generative mining operation within the Philippines and globally, having generated strong Free Cash Flow of $113.1 million and $94.0 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022 and the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2023, respectively.