Mass housing developer offers to buy back Seacem shares

MANILA, Philippines – Davao-based mass housing developer 8990 Group made the mandatory tender offer to the minority shareholders of Southeast Asia Cement Holdings, Inc. (Seacem) after buying out the controlling shareholders.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Friday, June 14, Seacem said it offered to acquire all the remaining common shares held by the public, representing about 10% of the company.

The offer price of P0.4083 is a 67% discount to the P1.52 per share closing price last Thursday.

The tender offer was made by IHoldings, Inc., Kwantlen Development Corp. and Januarius Resources Realty Corp — the stockholders of of 8990 Housing Development Corp. 

The mandatory offer comes after the June 7 sale agreement between these buyers and previous shareholders: Calumboyan Holdings, Inc., Lafarge Holdings Philippines, Inc. and Seacem Silos, Inc.

The P2.57 billion deal was for an 89.87% stake in Seacem, equivalent to about 6.294 billion shares. 

Seacem’s main asset was its 24.4% stake in  Lafarge Republic Inc. (LRI). Both Seacem and LRI are units of French building materials giant Lafarge.

The sale was triggered largely by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) rule implemented in January that listed firms must at least be 10% owned by the public. The sale hiked Seacem’s public float to 10.31% from 2.41%, allowing Seacem to avoid being delisted by July 1, the PSE’s deadline.

Following the sale, Seacem is now a shell company, ripe for backdoor listing for the 8990 Group.

Mass housing developer 8990, based in Davao City, has been operating for the last 22 years and built 51 subdivisions and over 41,000 units, mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao. Most projects are priced P400,000 to P1.5 million per unit.

It recently acquired new properties in Davao, Metro Manila, Pampanga and Cebu that will future expand the company’s range of housing projects to high rise, mid-rise, and condotel projects in key cities in the country. – Rappler.com