Macondray Plastics’ IPO gets warm reception at bourse

Macondray Plastics Inc. marked its debut yesterday at the Philippine Stock Exchange on a high note as it shrugged off the overall weakness in the market with a modest gain in its share price.

Stocks of the Davao-based, Lorenzo-controlled manufacturing firm were actively traded, ranging from its IPO price of P5.40 to as high as P5.70 It ended 20 centavos or almost four percent higher to P5.60 at the close of trading.

Macondray offered 16.74 million common shares equivalent to a 34-percent stake in the company for a total consideration of P90.4 million.

The company said the net proceeds of the offering will be used to finance the acquisition of machinery and equipment, building and civil works and other working capital needs.

Macondray Plastics is based in Davao City, where it maintains its plant facilities, supporting the operations of the packaging and distribution businesses, primarily for agriculture and chemicals, of the other Macondray companies.

It is controlled by the Lorenzo family, whose biggest interest remains with the Asia-Pacific operations of multinational food processor Del Monte.

Macondray was the first local issue in almost three years to post gains upon listing following an extended streak of market weak reception in other IPOs. Only foreign-based firms like Manulife and Sun Life managed to draw strong interest in their stocks at the local bourse when these were simultaneously listed a year ago.

With two more IPOs in the pipeline this year, which include paint maker Corro Coat and restaurant chain Pancake House Inc. (another unit of the Lorenzo family business), the number of new listing will reach seven in 2000, almost doubled from only four last year.

Aside from Macondray, Pancake House and Corro Coat, the other listings this year were Sun Life Financial Services, Active Alliance Inc., Globe Telecom Holding’s Philippine Deposit Receipts (PDRs) and DFNN.com.

Last year, only four firms braved the sluggish equities market: ChinaThrust (Phils) Banking Corp., Manulife Financial Corp., City & Land Developers and ABS-CBN Holdings’ PDRs.