Pryce opts for Singapore listing of IPO

A unit of the Pryce Group plans to follow the path of several Philippine-based companies that have listed their shares at the Singapore Stock Exchange, where the cost of undertaking an initial public offering (IPO) is cheaper and returns are relatively greater as compared to the bearish Philippine market.

Pryce Corp. corporate secretary Rey Nathaniel Ifurung told the Philippine Stock Exchange that several overseas investment bankers have offered to underwrite the proposed IPO of its subsidiary Pryce Gases Inc., a manufacturer of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) catering to the Visayas and Mindanao markets.

"It was then proposed that PGI be listed independently given its high-growth performance and very encouraging prospects," he said. PGI now accounts for 18 percent to 20 percent of the LPG market in the Southern regions as its sale doubled last year to 40,487 metric tons. LPG sales made up 76 percent of the company's revenues of P1.1 billion last year.

Ifurung said the IPO may include both primary and secondary shares priced in the range of between 13 to 15 times prospective 2000 earnings per share, resulting in the reduction of the company's equity interest in PGI to about 50 percent.

He said there were also plans to declare a portion of the company's shareholdings in PGI as property dividends to shareholders of the listed Pryce Corp., thus enabling these stockholders to actually and directly own shares of PGI and benefit from PGI's listing in the SGX.