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First Philippine Holdings Corp. will push back its preferred share
offering and listing date to give auditors more time to review its
financial statements two years prior, the company announced Friday.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock
Exchange, the Lopez-led company said it has moved the offer period
from April 14 to April 18 to sell up to 50 million Series “B”
perpetual preferred shares with a par value of P100 each. The
listing date is moved from April 25 to April 30.
“Basically it’s the auditors who have asked
for more time to review the restatement of prior years, 2005 and
2006. While the 2007 [financial statement] has been finalized, the
prior years had to be restated for comparability because there were
new adoptions of certain accounting standards,” Elpidio L. Ibañez,
president and FPHC chief operating officer, told reporters in a
briefing.
Ibañez said that the review will not have any
impact on its 2007 consolidated financial results. He added that
moving the dividend rate setting date would not affect the
indicative rate that was announced earlier unless there was great
movement in benchmark government interest rates until April 15.
FPHC expects the offering would raise around P3
billion in gross proceeds, P1 billion of which would go to Manila
Electric Co. shares and investments in several of its subsidiaries
that include First Philippine Infrastructure Inc., First Philippine
Infrastructure Development Corp. and Manila North Tollways Corp.
The Lopez-led firm is also investing in its
manufacturing businesses such as First Philec, which needs about $18
million for wafer slicing for solar power panels, and other projects
being developed in its joint venture with Sunpower Philippines
Manufacturing Ltd., an affiliate of US-based Sunpower Corp.
Another P1.5 billion from the total proceeds
will repay its outstanding obligations in the form of fixed rate
notes worth $52 million and long-term debt with Asia Infrastructure
Mezzanine Capital Fund. The Lopez firm would also pay its debt with
Standard Bank Asia Ltd. worth $17.9 million.
The balance of the estimated proceeds of the
preferred shares around P443 million would be used to finance
capital and operating requirements and other general corporate
purposes.
Last year, FPHC said its recurring net income
rose by 63 percent to P4.4 billion year on year but gross revenues
for the 12-month periodslid by 1.3 percent to P58.8 billion,
including the one-time gains of P2.7-billion FPHC booked from the
First Gen Corp. initial public offering and P2.8 billion from the
Meralco reversal of provisions for losses.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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