Roxas Holdings gets nod to hike capital

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the capital increase of listed sugar firm Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI) to P1.5 billion from only P1 billion.

Documents filed at the SEC showed that the increase in capital was intended to cover additional working capital.

RHI was recently appointed by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and the Philippine Sugar Research Institute (Philsurin) to oversee the modernization of the sugar sector in Luzon.

The company is the first partner organization of the Department of Agriculture in its agricultural competitiveness enhancement fund (ACEF) program. The sugar sector modernization project component is estimated to cost P42.1 million.

The company was chosen on the basis of its own farm productivity initiatives within the provinces of Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Quezon and its compliance with world-class sugar manufacturing standards.

RHI president Miguel A. Gaspar said the ACEF is a positive development for the industry and will complement the efforts of the SRA and Philsurin in the drive to increase cane production and improve sugar recoveries to make the country competitive vis-a-vis other countries around the world.

The program involves the mechanization of sugarcane farming operations of sugar farmers and the improvement of the farm road networks in Nasugbu and other sugar producing areas in the whole milling district.

RHI’s Batangas sugar manufacturing plant, as the lead organization of the CADP mill district development foundation, will administer and implement the program in cooperation with various planets’ associations in the district.

The first phase of the program will involve the turnover to CADP of 16 John Deere farm tractors with a complete line of anciliary implements for land preparation and planting for development to sugar planters covering an aggregate area of nearly 300,000 hectares.

The second part of the program will entail the acquisition and deployment of construction equipment that will mobilize the repair and maintenance of farm roads to improve harvesting operations, particularly during the raining season.

RHI has been renamed from CADP in line with its reorganization program to consolidate its sugar businesses and to transform into a diversified holding and investment corporation.