Lucky Me! maker Monde Nissin’s IPO gets SEC clearance

Food maker Monde Nissin Corporation, the owner of Lucky Me! brands, has secured the thumbs-up of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to proceed with its plan to raise more than P60 billion in what could be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the Philippine market to date.

The company filed its prospectus for the IPO early last month. 

“In its April 20 meeting, the Commission En Banc resolved to render effective the registration statement of Monde Nissin covering 17,968,611,496 common shares to be listed and traded on the Main Board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), subject to the company’s compliance with certain remaining requirements,” the corporate regulator said.

“The registration statement covers 3,600,000,000 common shares, which shall comprise the primary offer priced up to P17.50 per share,” it said.

The offer comes with an overallotment option comprising up to 540,000,000 existing common shares.

At the maximum price, the company will raise P63,000,000,000 in total gross proceeds from the primary offer alone.

Assuming that the overallotment option is fully exercised, the total gross proceeds could reach as much as P72,450,000,000.

Monde Nissin expects to net about P60.61 billion from the primary offer.

The proceeds will be used for capital expenditures at P26.52 billion, redemption of a convertible note at P17.31 billion, and repayment of loans at P16.78 billion.

The company's Asia-Pacific branded food and beverage business includes instant noodles, biscuits, oyster sauce, and yogurt drinks under the brands Lucky Me!, SkyFlakes, Fita, Nissin, M.Y. San Grahams, Mama Sita's, and Dutch Mill.

Based on its latest submissions to the SEC, Monde Nissin will run the public offering from May 17 to 21, and list on the PSE on May 31.

The company tapped UBS AG Singapore Branch, Citigroup Global Markets Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities PLC will serve as joint global coordinators for the IPO, while Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited will serve as joint international bookrunner, alongside international co-bookrunners Jefferies Singapore Limited and Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited.

BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital Corporation and First Metro Investment Corporation will serve as local lead underwriters.

China Bank Capital Corporation, PNB Capital and Investment Corporation and SB Capital Investment Corp. were also engaged as domestic co-lead underwriters.

Monde Nissin posted a net income of $8.065 billion in 2020, according to its unaudited financial statement attached to the prospectus. — Ted Cordero/BM, GMA News