Metro Retail Group to hold roadshow for IPO

MANILA, Philippines - The Gaisano family’s Metro Retail Stores Group is embarking on a domestic investors’ roadshow this week to drum up interest for its planned initial public offering this month.

 In a notice posted on the Philippine Stock Exchange website, Metro Retail said it would hold an investors’ briefing on Nov. 4,  5 and 6 in Iloilo, Cebu and Manila, respectively.

The briefing in Iloilo will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the Corazon ballroom of the Iloilo Business Hotel while the briefing in Cebu take place at 1:30 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel.

The briefing in Manila, on the other hand, will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati at 4 p.m.

Metro Retail is seeking to raise up to P6.17 billion through an offering of up to 1.01 billion shares inclusive of an oversubscription option.  The shares will be sold at P6.10 per share.

The offer period will run from Nov, 9 to 13 while the listing of the shares has been set on Nov. 24.

 The company is allocating up to 644 million firm shares or 70-percent of the firm’s shares to institutional investors and the remaining 276 million shares or 30 percent for retail investors.

Majority of the net proceeds will be used  for capital expenditures in connection with the establishment of new stores.  Other proceeds will be used to fund the establishment of a consolidated logistics and distribution center in Cebu and for working capital requirements.

Metro Retail plans to open at least seven stores next year. It has secured 10 sites for stores that are expected to open between 2016 and 2017.

 These new stores are located in Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas and in Metro Manila.

In addition to this, there are 30 new sites under evaluation, located both in the Visayas and Luzon region.

Under PSE rules, existing shareholders owning at least 10 percent of the outstanding shares of an applicant are prohibited from  selling or assigning in any manner their shares for a period of 180 days after the listing.

 It has tapped BPI Capital Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG as joint global coordinators and lead underwriters.

Metro Retail will be the third company to debut at the local bourse this year after Crown Asia and SBS Philippines.