Chemrez plans IPO next year

Chemrez Inc., the owner of the first and largest coco-biodiesel plant in Asia, is planning to undertake an initial public offering (IPO) next year.

Jun Lao, Chemrez operations manager, told reporters that the company intends to list about 10 percent of its shares in the country’s stock exchange to raise funds to partly finance the construction of its P1.5-billion second coco-biodiesel plant.

"There are two possible ways to raise funds either through a straight commercial loan or by going public," he said.

Lao said so far, there are a lot of bilateral and multilateral financial institutions that they could tap.

"The World Bank is offering less than $10 million. We could also tap commercial banks like Equitable PCI Bank and Bank of the Philippine Islands for straight loans," he said.

Chemrez recently inaugurated its P950 million coco-biodiesel plant in Libis, Quezon City. It has capacity of 60 million liters a year.

The cost of the construction (P650 million) and raw materials (P350 million) of the newly-inaugurated coco-biodiesel plant was financed fully by internally-generated funds.

The second plant which will be located near a seaport or within an economic zone, will triple current capacity of Chemrez or 180 million liters a year production.

Potential sites of the second plant, he said, could be in Batangas Bay, Subic Bay and Cebu.

Chemrez is a leading manufacturer of colorants, resin, and specialty chemicals in the country. It has established a bio petroleum unit producing and market ester-based specialty products for automotive use, including fatty acids methyl ester also called as coconut methyl ester, and more popularly known as coco-biodiesel, carrying the brand name BioActiv BD 100.

Established in 1991, Chemrez is a member of a D&L Industries Group, a leading provider of colors, chemicals and plastics in the Philippines.

Incorporated in July 1971, D&L has six other subsidiaries aside from Chemrez.