Philex hikes capital to P13.81 B

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp., the country’s largest miner, has upgraded its capital raising plan to nearly P14 billion.

Proceeds from the planned stock rights offering will allow the company to pay existing debts and support exploration projects, Philex said in a disclosure.

Philex said it filed before the Securities and Exchange Commission the registration of up to P13.813 billion worth of common shares at a par value of P1 apiece.

Specifically, the copper and gold miner will sell 2.466 billion common shares at P5.60 apiece, which is a 38.59-percent discount compared with yesterday’s closing price of P9.12 per share.

Stockholders as of Oct. 16 are allowed to buy new shares, which will be offered from Oct. 21 to Nov. 4.

In April, Philex shareholders approved the P12.3-billion stock rights offering, which was earlier targeted in July and contingent with the permanent lifting of the mining suspension in Benguet.

“The offer shares will be issued from the authorized but unissued capital stock of the company,” the miner said.

Once the rights offer is completed, issued and outstanding capital stock of Philex will increase to 7.399 billion common shares from the current 4.933 billion common shares.

A portion of the estimated net proceeds of P13.54 billion was allotted to pay various debts: the P2.1-billion and $15-million loan from Kirtman Ltd., $15-million loan from Maxella Ltd., $50-million loan from Asia Link B.V., P250-million loan from Bank of the Philippine Islands and P100-million loan from BDO.

Philex will also spend P7.63 billion for capital expenditures and development cost for the Silangan copper and gold project.

Joint lead underwriters are HSBC, BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. HSBC was hired as the sole global coordinator.

Philex targets to start commercial operations of the Silangan copper-gold mine in Surigao del Norte in 2017.