Roxas & Co. sells 31% of Roxas Holdings to First Pacific for P2.23 billion

Listed sugar producer Roxas & Co. Inc. said Thursday it sold 31 percent of unit Roxas Holdings Inc. to Manuel Pangilinan's First Pacific Natural Resources Holdings BV for P2.23 billion as part of corporate efforts to grow its sugar and real property businesses.

 

The directors of Roxas & Co. approved the sale of 279,247,760 shares or 31 percent of Roxas Holdings to First Pacific Natural Resources Holdings BV at P8 per share or P2.23 billion, Roxas & Co. noted i na disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.

 

A unit for Hong Kong-based First Pacific Company Ltd., First Pacific Natural Resources is an investment management and holding company which operates primarily in Asia. Its business interests include telecommunications, infrastructure, consumer food products and natural resources. 

 

Roxas & Co. said proceeds from the equity sale will be used to realign its core shareholders, strengthen its balance sheet, and finance its development projects that focus on the “fastest-growing segment of realty/hotel/tourism.”

 

In an e-mailed statement, executive chairman Pedro E. Roxas said the move “ends the sugar group’s long search for a strategic partner and will accelerate Roxas Holdings' plan to be the dominant sugar company in the Philippines.”

 

President & CEO Renato C. Valencia added that the partnership "will strengthen Roxas Holdings and prepare it for the industry consolidation that will take place with the advent of the ASEAN integration in 2015."

 

Roxas & Co., which owns 66 percent of Roxas Holdings, remains the major shareholder of 35 percent of Roxas Holdings after the sale.

 

After acquiring additional shares from other stockholders, First Pacific will increase its equity in Roxas Holdings to 34 percent from 31 percent.

 

Roxas & Co. said in the same disclosure it will buyback of 990,384,775 Roxas Holdings shares – or 34 percent of the outstanding capital stock of the company – from four stockholders at P1.70 per share in a private sale.

 

The entry of Pangilinan's group in Roxas Holdings paves the way for the development of its three sugar companies – Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc., Central Azucarera de La Carlota Inc. and bioethanol producer Roxol Bioenergy Corporation.

 

Roxas Holdings also has a 45 percent stake in Hawaiian-Philippine Company, a sugar miller in Negros Occidental. 

 

Apart from sugar-related assets under Roxas Holdings, Roxas & Co. has exposure in real estate development through property arm, Roxaco Land Corp. – VS, GMA News