Belle Corp unit sets IPO

Highlands Prime Leisure Properties Inc. (HPLPI), the property unit of Belle Corp. which will soon be taken over by the SM Group, will offer its shares to the public to raise about P370 million mainly to repay Belle’s debt.

The company has filed its application for an initial public offering (IPO) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for listing at the second board of the Philippines Stock Exchange.

The offering will involve 322,852,186 common shares held by Belle Corp., representing 15 percent of its interest in HPLPI. The shares will be sold on a secondary basis at a price of P2.33 each. Asian Alliance Investment Corp. was appointed lead underwriter and issue manager for the IPO.

After the offering, Belle will be left with a 34-percent stake in the company while majority ownership will be in the hands of retail magnate Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp., the assignee of Sysmart Corp. for the acquisition of a 51-percent block.

Last July 31, Sysmart entered into a memorandum of agreement with Belle for the purchase of the controlling shareholding for approximately P2.5 billion. Sy, who also owns 20 percent of Belle, purchased the shares also at P2.33 each.

HPLPI was spun-off early this year as part of Belle’s corporate restructuring aimed at wiping out its debt load of about P6.3 billion. The company has borrowed P2.1 billion from local sources and $86.5 million from foreign sources, mostly dollar-denominated floating rate notes (FRNs).

As a new company, HPLPI is debt-free and will have ownership of core property assets made up of undeveloped land, subdivision lots and finished residential units located in Tagaytay Highlands in Cavite and Tagaytay Midlands in Batangas with a combined fair market value estimated at P7.715 billion.

In addition to about 534 hectares of land in Tagaytay, Calamba in Laguna and Talisay and Tanuan towns in Batangas which can be developed into high-end residential and/or leisure property projects, HPLPI will be sourcing revenues from the sale of 25 completed residential units and 71 developed subdivision lots in various projects undertake by Belle.

These include Pinecrest Village, The Villas, The Belle View, The Woodlands, Lakeview Log Home, The Alta Mira and Lakeview Heights.

For the SM group, the acquisition of majority of HPLPI will complement its operations as it will tie up with future developments in the sprawling 600-hectare Hacienda Looc seaside property in Batangas.