East Asia Power boosts public float

MANILA, Philippines - East Asia Power Resources Corp. (EAPRC), which will be renamed Century Properties Group Inc., is planning to boost its public float to as much as 40 percent to improve the stocks liquidity.

In an interview following EAPRC’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday, company chairman Jose E.B. Antonio said they have hired UBS and Macquarie Group as financial advisors to explore various options on how to comply with the 10-percent minimum public float requirement.

Antonio said the company is looking to offer primary and secondary shares when market conditions have improved.

“The idea is to create a corporation where you give stockholders a chance to benefit from your business,” Antonio said.

Proceeds from the share sale will be used to fuel the company’s growth, he said.

EAPRC is beefing up its capitalization to P10 billion from P6 billion to facilitate a share swap involving four Antonio family-owned companies.

Century Properties effectively joined the roster of companies traded on the local bourse through the backdoor listing of EAPRC.

Backdoor listing is an act in which a private company purchases a publicly-traded company and shifts its management into the latter. This allows private firms to become publicly traded while avoiding the regulatory and financial requirements associated with an initial public offering.

The publicly-traded company is usually a shell corporation.

The acquisition of EAPRC was completed in July with the purchase of 93.59 percent of the energy holding firm from private shareholder El Paso Philippines for P127.4 million.

Century Properties would subscribe to the capital increase in exchange for all of the property firm’s shares in subsidiaries Century Properties Management, Century Communities, Century Limitless and Century Development.

Century Properties would subscribe for the shares at P1 per common share or at an aggregate price equivalent to the aggregate book value of Century Properties’ shares in the four corporations as of July 31 this year.

EAPRC said the placing and subscription transaction would involve the sale by Century Properties of up to 3.33 billion common shares and its subscription to the same number of shares sold.

EAPRC approved a resolution to undergo an equity restructuring and a decrease in capital stock to wipe out its accumulated deficit as of July 31 this year.