SEC okays IPOs of GT Capital, East West Bank

MANILA, Philippines - The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the initial public offering (IPO) of Ty-led investment firm GT Capital Holdings Inc. and the Gotianun family’s East West Banking Corp., which could raise up to P24.66 billion and P6.6 billion, respectively.

The approval comes at a time when the local market has been staging record-breaking rallies amid an improving global economic climate.

GT Capital, the holding company and primary vehicle for the management of the various interests of the Ty family in banking, real estate, power generation, automotive and life insurance, plans to offer up to 41.217 million common shares at a maximum price of P520 each.

Up to 33 million new common shares will be issued through a primary offering and up to 8.217 million existing shares will be sold by shareholders Ausan Resources Corp., Grand Titan Capital Holdings and Titan Resources Corp.

The holding firm has also allotted as much as 6.182 million common shares worth P3.21 billion for the greenshoe option in case of strong demand for the issue.

The pricing and allocation of shares for the international offer will be on April 3 while the domestic offer period will run from April 10 to 17.

Listing has been tentatively scheduled on April 23.

UBS is the sole global coordinator and international bookrunner for the share sale while First Metro Investment Corp. is the sole domestic underwriter.

EastWest Bank, on the other hand, will sell up to 245.316 million common shares through a primary and secondary offering at a maximum price of P23.50 apiece.

Of the total, up to 141.056 million new shares will issued via a primary offer to raise as much as P3.31 billion. The balance of up 104.259 million shares will be sold by parent firm Filinvest Development Corp. to generate around P2.45 billion in proceeds.

The bank is also setting aside up to 36.797 million shares, coming from the shares of the selling shareholder, for the over-allotment option.

More than half of the offer shares, or up to 171.72 million shares, will be sold overseas while 73.594 million shares will be issued to the domestic market.

Deutsche Bank AG and JP Morgan Securities will serve as EastWest Bank’s international lead managers while Unicapital Inc. is the domestic lead underwriter.