Philab Industries taking IPO route

MANILA, Philippines - Philab Industries Inc., a 56-year old Filipino pioneer in laboratory design, manufacturing and installation, is looking to join the country’s stock market early next year as it prepares for its biggest spending to date.

Philab chairman and chief executive officer Hector Thomas Navasero, son of the late Philab founder and long-time Philippine baseball chief Hector Navasero, told The STAR in an interview the company is gearing up for a more aggressive expansion starting next year with an allotted capital expenditure of some P2 billion to P3 billion.

“This will be much bigger than our usual annual budget of P500 million,” he said.

As the pioneer scientific research enabler in the Philippines, Philab specializes in fields of diagnostics, medical care, manufacturing and design.

Navasero said next year’s planned spending would be used to further extend its services through expansion and establishment of more hospitals, laboratories and diagnostic centers across the country.

“We want to invest in genetics to build our business process outsourcing (BPO) genomics business. For the genomic BPO, we’re going to put that in the new Philippine Economic Zone Authority accredited site in UP Los Baños. We signed a letter of intent to take about 20 hectares there. It is going to be a factory doing genetics,” Navasero said.

The planned facility will require an investment of about P1 billion and will be developed over the next three to four years, he said.

“We also want to invest in diagnostic facilities in the country. We’d like to put in regional facilities to help serve the whole country,” Navasero added.

Philab is also pouring in part of its budget earmarked for next year to develop an upcoming mobile application that allows Filipinos easy access to their personal medical information.

For this year, Navasero said the company is looking to grow revenues to at least P4 billion from last year’s P1 billion.

He said the firm’s target next year is to further double revenues to P8 billion on the back of its planned services and facilities expansion.

“Right now, we’re relying on government spending. Next year we’ll be looking at our own spending. The genetics will be a driver. Diagnostics will also drive some new revenues there. We might build a couple of those diagnostics centers already so that’s where the drivers will come from,” Navasero said.

Meanwhile, a source told The STAR Philab is planning to make its debut on the Philippine Stock Exchange by February next year with a planned initial public offering (IPO).

Philab intends to raise as much as P2 billion from the IPO to meet its growth requirements, the source said.

According to the source, access to capital is becoming a primary concern for Philab which is why it is going public.

“Banks are only lending so much, not in the billions. You can’t really grow with that if you want to serve the government,” the source said.

The source said Philab will submit its prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission by November this year with a targeted listing date within February next year.