Jolliville Holdings gains 18.52% in PSE debut

Jolliville Holdings Corp. (JOH) made an auspicious debut at the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday as its shares topped the gainers’ list, ending 20 centavos or 18.52 percent higher than its offering price of P1.08.

Before JOH’s initial public offering (IPO), it was a closely-held holding firm owned by the Ting family whose business interests are in the property sector: landbanking, leasing, property development, management services, and most recently, a public waterworks system.

JOH has seven subsidiaries, all 100-percent owned, to cater to its different lines of businesses: Jolliville Group Management Inc., Uptrend Concepts Management Corp., Ormina Realty and Development Corp., Jolliville Leisure and Resort Corp., Ormin Holdings Corp., Jollideal Marketing Corp. and Granville Ventures Corp.

"We embarked on this IPO and capital-raising exercise to push forward the development and growth of our first public utility initiative – Calapan Waterworks System and Develpment Corp. of Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro," JOH chairman and CEO Jolly Ting said.

The fifth company to list this year and the 237th overall to register at the PSE, JOH offered 33.5 percent or about 94.302 million of its total issued and outstanding shares. These consisted of P30 million new common shares and 64.302 millioin common shares held on a secondary basis, or those currently owned by the company’s major stockholders.

But despite the stock’s price performance, investors did not lay out the red carpet to welcome JOH as most of them continued to trade on selected blue chip issues such as Jollibee Foods, Ayala Land and PLDT.

The entire stock market, in fact, closed in negative territory yesterday as sluggish trading persisted on the lack of fresh corporate news to stir investor sentiment.

Only a single transaction, a cross trade by Mark Securities, made up JOH’s first trading day, bidding and closing at a fixed price of P1.28 on a volume of 10,000 shares.

JOH will use the estimated net proceeds of P30.46 million from its primary offer for its waterworks venture, where it expects to generate a steady revenue stream over the next couple of years.

While the company has established a foothold in the leasing and management business, particularly with a client base of high-end entertainment and leisure clubs in and around Metro Manila, JOH said it expects Calapan Water to be its main growth driver in the medium term, especially as it awaits the turnaround in the property sector.

Calapan Waterworks System Development Corp., a 92-percent owned entity of JOH subsidiary Ormina Realty and Development Corp. will be doing rehabilitation and management of the municipal waterworks system of Ting’s hometown Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro.

From 1999 to 2001, the bulk of JOH’s revenue and income still came from rentals and leasing services to its clients in the entertainment and leisure club business, among them Pegasus and Heartbeat in Quezon City, Pharaoh in Makati and Genie in Cainta.