PSE okays sale of add’l shares by Chemrez

The Philippine Stock Exchange approved yesterday the additional listing of shares of coco-biodiesel firm Chemrez Technologies Inc. (formerly Corro-Coat Inc.).

This paves the way for the company’s public offering on Nov. 20 and listing on Dec. 4.

The offering, estimated to raise P1.5 billion in proceeds, involves between 306.12 million to 384.62 million new shares, representing 22.46 percent to 26.68 percent of ChemTech’s expanded capital after the stock sale.

The shares will be sold at a price ranging from P3.90 to P4.90 per share. The offer price will be set before Nov. 20.

ChemTech intends to use the proceeds from the offering to retire its obligations to parent company D&L Industries (P667 million for the acquisition of the biodiesel project), to fully settle some bank loans and to partially finance its working capital requirements.

ChemTech, Asia-Pacific’s largest premium coco-biodiesel firm, expects its biodiesel business to account for half of its sales and over two-thirds of its profits by next year on the back of anticipated strong demand for alternative fuel in the domestic and export markets.

ChemTech used to be known as powder coating firm Corro-Coat before it acquired its much bigger affiliate Chemrez Inc. which manufactures resins and oleo-chemicals, including international-grade coco-biodiesel under the BioActiv brand.

It currently exports its premium coco-biodiesel BioActiv to rapidly expanding export markets, such as Europe and Japan, which are seeking alternatives to petro-diesel but have limited capacity to produce crops for the manufacture of biodiesel.