Alliance Tuna makes strong debut at PSE

Alliance Tuna International Inc. (ATII), one of the country’s largest tuna exporters, made a strong debut at the stock market yesterday with its share price breaching the trading cap for listed stocks.

The stock opened at P2 per share compared with its initial public offering (IPO) price of only P1.35.

ATII, a joint venture between Filipino and Thai businessmen, offered a total of 134 million shares to the public, representing 25.04 percent of its issued and outstanding common shares after the offer.

Trading of the company’s shares was frozen yesterday when its share price increased by 50 percent.

Under existing trading rules, a price freeze occurs when the trading price of the shares moves 50-percent upward or 40-percent downward from the previous closing price. Trading shall resume the next day.

Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Francis Lim said this was the first time in so many years that an IPO breached the trading band upon listing.

ATII president and chief executive officer Jonathan Y. Dee attributed the strong reception to the current bull run in the stock market, which has already surpassed the 2,700 index level.

"I think that the market is helping it. It’s not a big IPO that’s why the market is excited about us. The issue size is just right for Filipino investors to look at," Dee said.

Abacus Securities Corp. president Paulino Soo earlier said there has been a lot of interest in the issue considering it was priced attractively and the timing of the offering was excellent with the market riding high on strong sentiment.

Abacus Capital & Investment Corp. was the lead underwriter for the issue.

The offer price of P1.35 is approximately 10.3X ATII’s earnings forecast this year. That compares with an average price-earnings ratio of 21X for listed food companies and 11.4X for listed Thai tuna companies.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to fund working capital requirements (P49.89 million), repay debts and acquire equipment (P61.8 million).

ATII is the third company to go public this year, following stock brokerage CitisecOnline.com Inc. in July and power producer First Gen Corp in February.

ATII exports its products mainly to major markets in Europe and North America. It is looking at expanding the market for its products to 60 countries in the next 12 months.

The company plans to build up shipments to customers in its non-traditional markets, which include Africa, Bahamas, Chile, Libya, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Caribbean countries.

The company’s tuna processing and canning facility is located in Gen. Santos City, known as the tuna capital of the Philippines. It can process a combined 120 metric tons of yellowfin and skipjack tuna per day.

ATII sells around 1.5 million cases of canned tuna products a year, just one percent of the global market of 150 million cases.

ATII posted a net income of P55 million last year, slightly lower than the P57-million net earnings recorded in 2004.

Incorporated in September 2003, ATII has a marketing office in Bangkok, Thailand to strengthen its marketing efforts to international markets. Bangkok is a major buying hub in Asia for canned tuna buyers worldwide.