SEC OKs Medilines IPO, Sta. Lucia Land follow-on offering

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday announced the approval of two stock offerings aimed at raising about P11 billion.

In a statement, the SEC said that it considered in its October 12 meeting the initial public offering (IPO) of Medilines Distributors Inc. and follow-on offering of Sta. Lucia Land Inc.

The corporate regulator said its commission en banc resolved to render effective the registration statements of Medilines and Sta. Lucia Land covering 2,750,000,800 common shares and 3 billion common shares, respectively, subject to certain remaining requirements.

In particular, Medilines will offer to the public up to 550,000,000 primary common shares priced up to P2.45 apiece, plus a secondary offering of up to 275,000,000 shares to be sold by selling shareholder, Virgilio Villar.

The Medilines shares will be listed and traded on the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

The medical equipment distributor is expecting to net P1.28 billion from the sale of the primary shares.

The company will not receive proceeds from the sale of secondary offering by the selling shareholder, which could amount to P641.2 million.

Proceeds from the offer will be used to finance Medilines’ working capital in relation to the procurement of existing products and the build-up of its medical consumables inventory, as well as to repay debt.

The IPO is scheduled to run from November 11 to 17. The listing date is set on November 25, based on the latest timetable submitted to the SEC.

Sta. Lucia Land, on the other hand, will offer to the public up to 2.5 billion common shares with an offer price ranging from P2.38 to P3.29 per share, with an oversubscription option of up to 500 million common shares.

The shares will be listed and traded on the main board of the PSE.

Net proceeds from the offer could reach up to P9.55 billion, assuming the oversubscription option is fully exercised, according to the SEC.

The company will use proceeds from the offer for capital expenditures of new and ongoing projects, payment of short-term debt, strategic land banking, and general corporate purposes.

The follow-on offering is slated to run from November 10 to 19, with the shares to be listed on the PSE on November 26, according to the latest timetable submitted to the SEC.  -NB, GMA News