8990 Holdings completes follow-on offer

MANILA, Philippines - Mass housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. has completed its P8.96-billion follow-on offering, jumpstarting the property developer’s plans to pay debts and significantly expand its landbank.

8990 Holdings said its share sale was met with strong demand particularly from global funds and major local investment houses.

The real estate firm is listing today 1.24 billion common shares composed of 862.19 million primary shares and up to 382.36 million secondary shares with an overallotment option of 134.95 million shares.

The equity deal attracted “overwhelming” demand from global investors as the Philippines obtained another credit rating upgrade from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services last week, said 8990 Holdings president and CEO Januario Jesus Atencio.

8990 Holdings’ follow-on offering secured the interest of two global long-term institutional investors, Khazanah Nasional Berhad and TPG Capital Pte. Ltd., which committed to invest a total P2.9 billion during the bookbuilding process.

TPG Asia managing partner Tim Dattels said the company is keen on participating in 8990 Holdings’ goal of addressing the needs for affordable housing in the Philippines.

“Proceeds from the follow-on offering will be utilized to pay down the company’s long-term debts and, at the same time, increase its existing landbank by an additional 250 hectares,” 8990 Holdings said.

“The success of our follow-on offering allows us now to provide even more housing to the mass base of our countrymen whose main goal in life is to provide a decent home and a better life for his family,” Atencio said.

8990 Holdings has a pipeline of 18 projects totaling 64,405 housing units in 250 hectares of landbank. The company expects to generate around P66 billion in revenues from various projects in the next five years.