Cement firm mulls backdoor listing

By Doris C. Dumlao

Philippine Daily Inquirer

5:14 pm | Monday, November 19th, 2012

MANILA, Philippines—Cement manufacturing holding firm Southeast Asia Cement Holdings Inc. is reviewing backdoor listing options after completing a share buyback that widened the public float of subsidiary Lafarge Republic Inc. but reduced its own public ownership to a level below the minimum requirement.

Based on disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, Seacem has completed a voluntary tender offer to buy back its own shares in exchange for a mix of shares in LRI and cash. This exercise allowed LRI to meet the 10-percent minimum public float required to remain listed on the PSE but shrunk Seacem’s own float to 2.4 percent.

But Seacem shrugged off market expectations that it may voluntarily delist from the PSE now that its public float had been reduced to a level below the minimum requirement. Prior to the buyback transaction, Seacem had a public ownership of 16.49 percent.

“Seacem is reviewing its options to comply with the 10 percent minimum public float requirement, the context of, among others, possibilities for consolidating assets and investments, and opportunities for entering into transactions with third part[ies] interested in a backdoor listing,” Seacem corporate secretary Ruby Sarah Nitorreda.

She said the specific actions and the terms and conditions would be timely disclosed when these are determined by the Seacem board.

In the disclosure, Seacem said it had sold 249.52 million LRI shares in exchange for 930.73 million of its own shares. In a separate disclosure, LRI said this sale increased LRI’s public ownership to 10.29 percent or 599.07M million shares, thus meeting the minimum requirement.

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Tags: Business , Cement , Commodities , News

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