Movie producer Viva to raise as much as P1.2B from IPO

Movie producer Viva Communications Inc. has filed an application before the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise as much as P1.2 billion through an initial public offering. In a registration statement filed with the SEC, Viva Communications said it will be offering 92,857,143 new common shares and 49,999,500 secondary shares at an offer price of P9.72 to P12.93 per shares. The company is targeting to start offering its shares to the public on January 14, 2008 and close it on January 21, 2008. Viva Communications plans to list on January 25, 2008. Of the expected net proceeds of P1.09 billion, P403.7 million will go to payment of existing loans and payables, P179.4 for content acquisition, P140 million for film library digitization and equipment acquisition, P120 million for local film production. The company said P100 million will go to the creation of programming for two cable channels, P70 million for foreign movies acquisition, P60 million for concerts and events and P20 million for training and development. Presently, the company has a total of 316,095,000 issued and outstanding common shares and after the IPO, it will have a total of 408,952,148 common shares issued and outstanding. BDO Capital & Investment Corp. is the issue manager and lead underwriter for the offering. The company reported that for the first 10 months of the year, it earned P121.42 million in net income, more than double its last year’s full income of P60.93 million and the P59.02 million in 2005. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV