Balai Ni Fruitas cuts offer price for P288.8-M IPO

MANILA, Philippines — Balai Ni Fuitas Inc. slashed the price for its upcoming initial public offering that is meant to raise cash for its store network expansion.

In a notice to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the baked goods unit of listed food and beverage kiosk operator Fruitas Holdings Inc. set its final IPO price at P0.70 per share, 6.7% lower than the original price of P0.75.

The size of the offering remains at 412.5 million common shares. Broken down, Balai will sell to the public 325 million primary shares as well as 50 million secondary shares, which will be offered by its parent firm Fruitas. If there is strong investor interest in the IPO, the company would sell 37.5 million more shares to meet the extra demand.

With the new offer price, Balai is poised to raise P288.8 million from the offer. Of that amount, proceeds from the sale of primary shares — about P227.5 million — will go to store network expansion and potential acquisition, among others. Balai’s current footprint is concentrated in Metro Manila.

The IPO will run from June 17 to 21 based on the timetable the company submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Once it debuts on the PSE on June 29, Balai’s shares will be listed on the Small, Medium, and Emerging Board.