Harbor Star mulls IPO

MANILA, Philippines - A local tugboat operator is pushing through with its initial public offering (IPO) after a two-month deferral.

In a memorandum, the Philippine Stock Exchange said Harbor Star Shipping Services Inc. expressed its intent to conduct an IPO downsized from the original plan, making it the fifth firm to go public this year.

“Please be advised that we have set a lower offer price from up to P3.27 per share to P2.50 per share, as the maximum price,” Harbor Star told the local bourse.

Harbor Star earlier planned to list 605.238 million common shares, of which 181.6 million shares will be sold to the public at a maximum price of P3.27 apiece.

Given the lower selling price, the tugboat operator will raise a maximum of P454 million in gross proceeds.

In July, Harbor Star became the third company to postpone its public share sale given unfavorable market conditions. Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. and Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. earlier deferred their P40-billion and P42-billion IPO, respectively.

Harbor Star said the offer price will be finalized on Sept. 25, which will be followed by the offer period on Oct. 16-23 and the listing on Oct. 30. Under the original timeline, offer period should have been conducted on July 22-26, followed by the listing on Aug. 2.

Harbor Star plans to use the fresh capital for the acquisition of tugboats for domestic and international expansion and refleeting.

Harbor Star started commercial operations with just one tugboat in 1998. After 10 years, it has increased its fleet to more than 20 tug boats located in major ports like Bataan, Batangas, Quezon, Cebu, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Leyte and Davao.

Its services include ship salvage, wreck removal, firefighting, oil spill abatement and recovery and handling hazardous chemicals.

Harbor Star hired Abacus Capital & Investment Corp. as the issue manager and lead underwriter.

Four firms have so far debuted in the local bourse: Philippine Business Bank, AG Finance Inc. and Asia United Bank through an IPO, and Del Monte Pacific Ltd. via listing by introduction that gave the company the leeway to sell shares at a latter date.