Asia United Bank climbs 9.5% on its PSE debut

Lender Asia United Bank Corp. jumped as much as 9.5 percent on its market debut on Friday after an oversubscribed public offer, the first listing since the country won investment rating upgrades from two agencies this year. The medium-sized bank's overseas public offer, five times oversubscribed mainly by Asian investors, highlighted the country's rise as one of the region's top investment markets. Both Fitch Ratings and S&P promoted the country to investment grade status in the past two months. The Philippines, Southeast Asia's best performing stock market this year with gains of nearly 26 percent, has already surpassed its record 2012 sales from IPOs and follow-on deals. After the share issue of Melco Crown Philippines Resorts Corp., a unit of Macau-based Melco Crown Entertainment, the total value of public share sales from January to April hit $2.7 billion, exceeding the country's $2.53-billion record sales from IPOs and follow-on deals for all of 2012. Several big corporations have lined up share sales this year to take advantage of the stock market boom, including San Miguel Corp.'s power unit, which hopes to raise at least $700 million from the public offer by its power generation unit. Asia United opened at P101.5 ($2.46), 6.8 percent higher than its offer price of P95 a share, before rising to as high as P104.4 . The broader market was 0.7 percent lower in early trade. Asia United had earlier priced its $204 million initial public offer at the midpoint of an indicative range to ensure after-market support, although the issue's overseas sale comprising 60 percent of total was five times oversubscribed. The bank, owned by unlisted Philippine snack food manufacturer and exporter Republic Biscuit Corp., sold 88 million primary shares, including the over-allotment portion of 8 million shares. It plans to use the offer proceeds to finance expansion plans. UBS AG was the sole global coordinator for Asia United's offer. It is also bookrunner and lead manager together with Credit Suisse. BDO Capital and Investment Corp and First Metro Investment Corp. were domestic underwriters. Asia United's IPO is only the second by a Philippine company this year, after Philippine Business Bank's P3.2 billion listing in February. — Reuters