PhilWeb.com to issue P283-M bonus warrants

Internet stock PhilWeb.com will issue approximately P283 million worth of warrants in an effort to provide extra funding for its expansion program.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PhilWeb corporate information officer Ana Maria Katigbak said the company’s board has approved the grant of bonus warrants to stockholders, subject to the approval of both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PSE.

Warrants are securities issued by corporations to raise additional capital. Traded separately from stocks, a warrant allows its holders the right, but not the obligation, to subscribe to new shares at a set price during a specified period of time.

A growing number of listed companies have issued warrants at the PSE, including Philippine National Bank, Jollibee Foods, Equitable PCI Bank, Globe Telecom, MacroAsia, Waterfront and Omico Corp, with maturities of between three to five years.

Katigbak said the proposed warrants will be available to existing stockholders free of charge, at a ratio of one warrant for every 10 common shares held at record date.

Each warrant, when exercised within a three-year period from its issue date, will then entitle the holder to subscribe to one PhilWeb share. Upon issuance, the warrants will have an exercise price of 10 centavos each.

PhilWeb stock has a par value of one centavo, of which 28.295 billion shares are outstanding. Last year, PhilWeb was among the hottest and most actively traded stocks since it bought and transformed the former mining firm South Seas Resources into an Internet company.

Its stocks ranged from a low of 4.1 centavos to a high of 54 centavos last year. Yesterday, its shares closed one centavo higher to 8.5 centavos.