Robinsons Land eyes P13.65B via rights offer

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land Corp (RLC), the real estate development arm of taipan John Gokongwei’s JG Summit Holdings Inc., said its board has approved a plan to raise P13.65 billion from a two-for-one stock rights offering.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, RLC said its board approved the sale of up to 1.36 billion common shares at P10 each. The offer price represents a 31 percent discount to RLC’s closing price of P13.10 yesterday.

Under the stock rights offer, shareholders can purchase one share for every two shares held as of a record date yet to be determined by the company.

RLC said the shares to be issued will come from a planned capital hike from P3 billion to P8.2 billion, of which 25 percent or P1.3 billion will be subscribed and at least P325 million will be paid by way of the stock rights offering.

The company intends to use proceeds from the offering for land acquisition, project construction and development, possible international expansion and other general corporate purposes.

The additional capital will ensure the continued growth of the property firm’s business and give it flexibility to access the equity capital markets in the future since the subscribed capital has almost reached the authorized capital stock.

RLC, with a market value of around $812 million, said the rights issue is still subject to regulators’ approval. A special meeting has been set on Feb. 23 to seek shareholders’ approval for the increase in its capitalization.

RLC is going full blast with its expansion this year to grow its office, residential condominium, shopping mall and hotel businesses.

For its fiscal year ending September 2011, RLC has earmarked P9 billion for its capital expenditures to include the establishment of four malls and two office buildings.

Among the new malls slated for construction this year are in Pangasinan, Palawan, New Manila and Cebu.

RLC plans to put up a total of 30 Gohotels in and outside Metro Manila over a five year period. Programmed for opening this year are in Bacolod and Dumaguete. The next sites will rise in Palawan, Iloilo, Cebu and Tacloban for 2012 and Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Zamboanga, Batanes and Gensan in 2013.

The company has also offered to develop the 103-hectare Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig into a modern, world-class mixed-use development.