Del Monte trims stock rights offer price

MANILA, Philippines - Del Monte Pacific Ltd. (DMPL) will raise a little less money than it had intended from a stock rights offering that will be simultaneously conducted in the Philippines and Singapore as it sets its offer price at a discount.

In its report to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the food processing giant said it has finalized the price of its stock rights offering of 641.30 million new ordinary shares.

DMPL has priced the shares under the Philippine rights offer at P10.60 apiece while those under the Singapore offer would be at S$0.325 per share.

The Philippine price was a 37 percent discount from DMPL’s closing price  on Friday of P16.90, while that of Singapore was 32 percent cheaper.

Total proceeds from the offer is now expected to hit $154.4 million, equivalent to P6.8 billion and S$208.6 million.

The company was earlier eyeing to raise up to $180 million from the offering, proceeds of which will be used to repay the $165 million bridging facility from the Bank of the Philippine Islands that it had obtained to partially finance the acquisition of Del Monte Foods Inc. (DMFI), the consumer food business of US-based Del Monte Corp., last year.

Offer period for the shares will run from Feb. 10 to Feb. 26, with its listing to both the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd. has been set on March 9.