Ongpin-led Alphaland to hold rights offer in Feb

MANILA, Philippines – Ongpin-led property developer Alphaland Corporation will hold next month a P271-million stock rights offering for small shareholders to protect them from dilution following a recent capital call.

The rights offer will run from February 3 to 7, the company said in a statement on Wednesday, January 29.

“Now, that commitment is being fulfilled without delay by allowing minority shareholders to subscribe to new shares of Alphaland at the same P2.50 price per share.”

Earlier this month, Alphaland’s board of directors made a capital call to owners of more than 10% via private placement. To protect minority shareholders, the board also approved a rights offer with the same terms as the capital call.

A rights issue entitles shareholders to buy additional shares in the company, allowing them to keep the proportion of their existing holdings.

Alphaland said the rights issue will consist of 108 million new shares, and will raise P270.8 million in proceeds.

Any shares not taken up in the offer will be acquired by underwriter Unicapital Securities Inc.

Offer proceeds will be used to partly fund working capital and capital expenditure requirements.

Alphaland has several high-end developments, including the 3-tower Alphaland Makati Place, the P4-billlion members-only Balesin Island Club in Quezon province, and the P2-billion Alphaland Marina Club, which has hundreds of berths for boats of all sizes.

Ongpin raises stake

Alphaland issued a capital call to raise fresh funds needed to keep its projects going.

The call was done amid a feud between Alphaland shareholders – the group of former trade minister Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin and London-based private equity fund Ashmore.

Ashmore defaulted on the call, allowing Ongpin’s group to raise its stake in the company to 50.57%. Ashmore’s stake was brought down to 24.41%.

The boardroom battle has turned into a legal one after Alphaland management filed a complaint against two executives of Ashmore for allegedly faking a share sale in 2012. The share sale allowed Alphaland to meet the 10% minimum public float required for companies to remain listed on the local bourse.

Ongpin’s group claimed that Ashmore’s sale of a 2.5% stake in the property company to Credit Suisse was only “simulated” and that the equity fund is still the beneficial owner of the block of shares. Ashmore denied this.

Trading of Alphaland shares has been suspended since January 24. – Rappler.com