Gokongwei firms to raise $220M in share offering

An article published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 7, 2006
By Elizabeth L. Sanchez

property Giant Robinsons Land Corp. of John Gokongwei Jr. is pushing through with its plan to raise $200-$220 million from the sale of old and new shares to foreign and local investors possibly within the year, source said.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange late Friday, Gokongwei's flagship firm JG Summit Holdings Inc., its subsidiary Universal Robina Corp. and affiliate JG Summit Capital Services said they had agreed to collectively sell portion of their holdings in RLC about 482.8 million shares - to raise the capital.

In all, about 932.8 million shares are expected to be sold. Of the total, 51,75 percent - or 482.8 million shares - are existing shares that will make up the secondary offer.

The remaining 450 million shares to be sold are new or primary shares.

JG Summit Group now controls about 94 percent of RLC's outstanding capital, company sources said.

After the share offer, JG Summit will retain majority ownership of the property firm but its holdings will be reduced to about 60 percent.

Of the 482.8 million secondary shares, JG Summit will account for 9.7 million shares; and JG Summit Capital, 62.6 million shares.

RLC is bent on raising fresh capital either this year or early next year to gain fresh funds for major housing projects in the coming years.

The price of the offer has yet to be announced.

RLC recently announced that for fiscal year 2006, its net income from October to June - the company's first three quarters - grew 20 percent to P1.23 billion from P1.02 billion in the same period last year.

The company's fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

Total revenues for the past three quarters hit P4.83 billion. There was no comparative figure for the previous fiscal year.

RLC executive vice-president Frederick D. Go said revenues largely came from the firm's commercial centers division.

In a statement, RLC said its commercial centers division contributed almost half of the company's gross revenues.

The company's shopping centers, led by flagship stores Robinsons Galleria and Robinsons Place Manila, recorded gross revenue of P2.35 billion.

Robinsons Place Pioneer, which recently opened, and the redeveloped Robinsons Place Novaliches also contributed to the rental growth. The company said it would continue to focus its effeorts on improving tenant mix, enhancing mall facilites, and intesifying marketing efforts.

"The company will be expanding its retail presence all over the country, ensuring our continued growth,: Go said. "We have several metropolitan and provincial malls now in the pipelin, and construction will commence within 2006. We will soon complete the renovation of the Galleria west wing and are midway in the construction of the Manila mall expansion."

RLC is the real estate arm of JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the country's largest conglomerates with diverse interests in branded consumers foods, agro-industrial and commodity foof products, textile, telecommunications, petrochemicals, air transportation and financial services.

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