Pawnshop , property firms to hold initial public offers

The pawnshop chain of the Tambunting family and a property holding company are going to test their luck at the local stock market with their respective initial public offering (IPO) applications.

Tambunting Financial Services Inc. (TFS) and Jolliville Holdings Corp. (JHC) filed last week their IPO applications at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), hoping to raise P26.78 million and P30.46 million, respectively, to fund their expansion programs.

The planned IPO of TFS will be handled by Keppel Investments Inc. as issue manager and lead underwriter, pricing the offered shares at P1.05 each. TFS will list 30 million of its common shares with a par value of P1.

TFS will use the proceeds from the offer to expand the loan facility of the existing pawnshop branches and to finance the acquisition of new branches to address the growing needs of the market.

The increase in the loan facility for its existing 50 branches will amount to P17.75 million while branch expansion involving five new branches in 2002 and an additional five in 2003 will cost around P9.03 million.

From the pioneering Casa Agencia de Empenos de Ildefonso Tan Buntin founded in 1906 in Manila by the late Ildefonso Tan Bunting, the business soon grew and evolved into the Tambunting pawnshop chain which now has over 400 branches as of June 30, 2001.

During the same period, the TFS pawnshops had a consolidated loan portfolio of approximately P80.87 million and total assets of approximately P133.22 million.

Meanwhile, JHC, a holding company owned by the Ting family, will list a total of 94.302 million of its common shares, a portion of which will be offered to the public at P1.09 each.

The company has hired Pacific Asia Capital Corp. as its financial manager and issue manager with Keppel Investments, Inc. also as its lead underwriter. —— Conrado Diaz Jr.