Upson International [OCTGN 5.50 pre-PSE] [link], the parent company of Octagon Computer Superstore, Micro Valley, and Gadget King, had its P4.9 billion IPO approved by the SEC.
The deal calls for OCTGN to sell roughly 789 million primary common shares, and for OCTGN’s owner, Lawrence O. Lee (LOL), to sell an additional 98 million secondary shares as part of an over-allotment option, at a per-share price of P5.50.
OCTGN will put the proceeds toward the build-out of 250 new store branches over the next three years.
MB BOTTOM-LINE
After a long drought, it’s great to get some IPO movement again.
Not because IPOs are a sure-fire way to make money (they aren’t at all), but because their occurrence is an indicator of market health, and their spectacle is a strong driver of market interest.
It’s also a great learning opportunity for new investors, as the IPO process forces the company to condense its operational history, financial performance, and long-term plans all into one loosely standardized document: the prospectus.
Looking at OCTGN’s prospectus, we can see that this is a primary-heavy offering, which means that OCTGN itself (and not a selling shareholder, like LOL) will receive the bulk of the money raised through the sale of IPO shares.
That’s great, from a hodler’s perspective, because that allows OCTGN to use that massive injection of money to grow its business and attempt to increase shareholder value. The only step left in OCTGN’s path to the market is to have its application for IPO approved by the PSE. Once that happens, we’ll get a proper schedule for the stock’s final pricing date, its offer period, and its listing day. The PSE hates to overlap IPOs, so my feeling is that OCTGN will get whatever the Prime Infra juggernaut doesn’t get.
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