SL Agritech defers P8-B public offer

MANILA, Philippines - Hybrid rice and seeds producer SL Agritech Corp. has pushed back its planned initial public offering to early next year to raise as much as P8 billion, its top official said.

SL Agritech chairman and CEO Henry Lim said the company has already received feelers from entities interested to invest in its stocks.

The firm may sell as much as 25 percent of its shares to raise between P7- and P8-billion for its expansion.

Lim said the company was set to finish the 600-hectare seed production area in Davao Del Sur by end-May.

SL Agritech is also beefing up its facilities abroad after it signed a deal involving a $168-million rice production facility in China.

“We will open another processing “We will open another processing plant after two years. We will try to focus on Mindanao for seed production as it is least vulnerable to typhoons,” Lim said.

SL Agritech has seed processing areas in Laguna and Davao Oriental. Outside the country, the company has plants in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Lim said the firm is also looking at about two million hectares of agricultural land to be planted with hybrid rice in the next five years with the Department of Agriculture’s program to increase hybrid rice areas.

“Right now, only 250,000 hectares are planted. My target is to have two million hectares planted with hybrid by the end of the Duterte administration. One million hectares would actually be enough, but we need buffer stock,” he said.

SL Agritech is one of the large hybrid rice producers in the country. It produces the Dona Maria brand of premium rice in Miponica and Jasponica varieties.

It currently holds 70 percent of the total market share of hybrid variety in the Philippines.

The company has various partnerships for hybrid rice seed production in Asian nations such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia.