SEC okays public listing of Highlands Prime shares

All is set for the public listing of Belle Corp.’s Highlands Prime Leisure Properties Inc. (HPLPI) as the Securities and Exchange Commission approved its plan to raise some P200 million from the capital market.

SEC documents indicated that the company has been allowed to undertake an initial public offering (IPO) involving around 94 million shares with a par value of P2.13 per share.

According to the documents, the total offer would involve 1.65 billion shares, but only 93 million shares would be offered in the IPO. The bulk of the shares, amounting to P1.19 billion, would be sold to SM Investments Corp.

SMIC is a company owned by taipan Henry Sy who sits in the HPLPI board as chairman.

The remaining chunk of about 355.35 million shares would be sold in the secondary market also at P2.13 per share.

According to the SEC, the shares will be listed at the second board of the Philippine Stock Exchange where HLPLI’s listing application still awaits the approval of the exchange’s listing committee.

SEC documents showed that in March 2001, HPLPI increased its authorized capital stock from P100 million to P4 billion. Out of this increase, Belle Corp. subscribed to an aggregate of 2.15 billion shares at the par value of P1 per share.

Out of the transaction, the SEC said Belle planned to raise P741-million net of estimated IPO transactions from the sale of its stocks. The proceeds would be used to repay Belle’s debt amounting to P653.7 million and the rest would be used to cover expenses, including taxes, capital expenditures, working capital and other corporate disbursements.

The offer is to be underwritten by BDO Capital and Investment Corp. which was also hired to be the issue manager of the offer.

HPLPI is a property development company owned by Belle Corp., involved primarily in high-end leisure development. It was initially set up by Belle as a minimally capitalized entity until Belle transferred some property assets to the firm estimated to be worth P7.781 billion.

Now, HPLPI’s property assets include an estimated 534 hectares of undeveloped land, 71 developed subdivision lots and 25 finished residential units. These properties were assigned by Belle to HPLPI in consideration of shares issued by Belle from its increase in authorized capital stock.

HPLIP’s management is headed by Sy as chairman of the board, with Willy Ocier and Hans T. Sy as vice chairmen, Antonio Henson still sits as president while Manuel A. Gan is treasurer and A. Bayani K. Tan is corporate secretary.

The approval of HPLPI’s registration prompted SEC Chairman Lilia R. Bautista to express confidence that the SEC would likely to meet its targeted number of new listed companies.