OceanaGold listing moved to May 13

MANILA, Philippines — OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. moved its stock market debut by six days to May 13 from its original plan of May 7 after the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) board approved the miner’s P7.88 billion listing recently.

OceanaGold Philippines received the PSE board listing approval last April 4, based on its revised preliminary prospectus as of April 12.

The revised preliminary prospectus indicated that OceanaGold’s settlement date and listing date of shares on the PSE would now be on May 13.

The Australian-Canadian firm moved closer to becoming the initial public offering (IPO) curtain-raiser this year.

The company’s IPO would now run from April 29 to May 6 from its previous offer period of April 22 to April 26.

The pricing of OceanaGold shares is now scheduled on April 23 instead of April 17.

The miner seeks to raise as much as P7.88 billion from the sale of up to 456 million common shares owned by selling shareholder OceanaGold (Philippines) Holdings Inc. at up to P17.28 per share.

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved OceanaGold’s IPO.

Net proceeds from the offer are expected to reach P7.8 billion, which will go directly to the selling shareholder.

OceanaGold earlier disclosed that the “proceeds” from the IPO will be “applied” to reduce its debt, “further strengthening” its balance sheet.

OceanaGold investor relations director Rebecca Harris said the firm’s board would use the proceeds as it “sees fit” including as “as investment in other areas of the business, strengthening the balance sheet by paying back bank debt, or increasing returns to shareholders.”

“The allocation of capital to each of these buckets is yet to be determined, but it would be likely that at least a portion of the proceeds would be used for debt repayment,” Harris told The STAR in an email query earlier.

“Of course, the final amount to be received in the sale is yet to be known and will be determined in the context of the market,” Harris added.

OceanaGold Philippines, a subsidiary of multinational gold mining and exploration company OceanaGold Corp., operates the Didipio gold and copper mine in Nueva Viscaya under a financial or technical assistance agreement with the government.

The Didipio mine is expected to produce between 120,000 ounces and 135,000 ounces of gold and 12,000 to 14,000 metric tons of copper this year.