Sale of treasury shares yields P129 million for FNI

MANILA, Philippines — Listed nickel producer Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. (FNI) raised over P129 million from the sale of its treasury shares.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, FNI said it sold 51.9 million common shares at P2.50 apiece, or a total of P129.74 million.

The company’s board approved last April 27 the sale of treasury shares equivalent to one percent of its outstanding shares.

Its free float level is now at 55.18 percent, way above the minimum public float of 20 percent.

The sale was commenced the next day through the Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. and its trading facilities, and all shares were sold on the same day.

The treasury shares program is aimed at generating funds for general corporate purposes, FNI said.

There were no pre-emptive rights over the sale of treasury shares based on the company’s Articles of Incorporation.

FNI is a diversified Filipino company with interests in nickel ore mining, logistics, cement and steel production, and port operations.

It is committed to maintaining its position as one of the country’s leading nickel ore producers and contributing to the growth of the Philippine mining industry.

For this year, FNI targets 5.5 million wet metric tons (WMT) of production and export, composed of 60 percent low-grade ore and 40 percent medium-grade ore.

This will be equivalent to 91 shipments throughout the mining season running from March to October.

In September last year, FNI commissioned and commenced the commercial export of nickel ore from FNI’s mine in Palawan under affiliate Ipilan Nickel Corp.

It loaded 54,700 WMT of medium-grade nickel ore on M/V He Sheng Nan Fang as its first export to Guangdong Century Tsingshan Nickel Industry Co.,Ltd in China (GCTN).

GCTN is a long-standing customer of FNI’s Surigao-based Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC).

The company also completed the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Guangdong Century Tsingshan Nickel Industry Co. Ltd (GCTN), the owner of a 33-hectare rotary kiln-electric furnace (RKEF) processing facility in China that caters to customers from within and outside Guangdong’s Economic and Technological Development Zones.

FNI president Dante Bravo earlier said these two developments should enable the company to carry out production all year-round and generate improved financial growth as it scales and integrates the business.

Last year, the mining company’s net earnings grew by nine percent to P2.2 billion from P1.98 billion as higher nickel prices and favorable foreign exchange environment offset lower production.