Marcventures eyes P100 million via private placement

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed Marcventures Holdings Inc. (formerly Ajonet Holdings Inc.) is raising P100 million through a private placement of shares.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Marcventures said its board approved a private placement of five billion common shares at a price of P0.02 each share.

The board has authorized its president, Ramon Recto to finalize the additional terms and conditions of the private placement and the list of investors participating in this fund-raising activity.

Marcventures Mining & Development Corp. (MMDC), led by Recto (former president of Lepanto Consolidated Mining) has taken over Ajonet in a share swap deal valued at P1.3 billion. Under the deal, MMDC subscribed to 45 billion shares of Ajonet at the new par value of P.01 each share.

The deal also involved Ajonet’s transfer to MMDC of 499 Metro Club certificates including its P17.5 million obligations to Philippine Townships Inc.

MMDC has a mineral production sharing agreement to mine 4,799 hectares of Cantilan, Surigao del Sur for nickel and gold.

With the change in ownership, Ajonet’s main focus of business had resulted in a shift to mining. The company has allotted P200 million to P250 million for its venture into the mining sector.

MarcVentrures is aiming to produce 600,000 metric tons of nickel ore in the first year of operations. This is expected to increase to 800,000 MT and 1.2 million MT in the second and third years, respectively.