Property firm Pro-Friends to sell 20% shares to cornerstone investors

MANILA, Philippines – Property Company of Friends, Inc. (Pro-Friends), a real estate firm that is planning to go public next month, intends to sell up to 20% of the total offer shares to cornerstone investors.

Large institutional or well-known individuals can be cornerstone investors in time for an initial public offering (IPO), signaling the market that the public offering is a trusted and worthwhile investment for other investors.

To attract cornerstone investors, Pro-Friends has just completed its presentations to various fund groups like insurance firms, mutual funds, and asset management companies, according to one of the company’s underwriters, First Metro Investments Corp. president Roberto Juanchito Dispo.

A planned roadshow in Hong Kong and Singapore is also in the pipeline to present to regional, institutional investors.

Pro-Friends will sell 10% to 20% of shares to key cornerstone investors, Dispo said.

“We would would like to believe that Pro-Friends offer better investment value proposition. Out of all the companies going public, this is the most profitable,” Dispo said.

Pro-Friends is selling up to 385.750 million shares at P20 ($0.45*) per share. The company is expecting to generate as much as P7.7 billion ($171.76 million) from the fund raising activity.

Net proceeds from the offering will be used for financing several real estate projects in Cavite, Iloilo, and Cagayan de Oro, including the acquisition of land for future developments.

In particular, Pro-Friends will spent P3.1 billion for expansion ($69.15 million); P2.48 billion ($55.30 million) in equity investment in Williamton Holdings Inc., and P1.24 billion ($27.65 million) for acquisition of additional properties in Cavite, Iloilo, and Cagayan de Oro.

Williamton is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amicus Holdings, the parent company of Pro-Friends, handling the in-house financing requirements of Pro-Friends homebuyers.

For 2014, Dispo said Pro-Friends is poised to generate P6 billion ($133.77 million*) in net income from P3.4 billion ($75.80 million) in 2013. The firm is expecting a net income of up to P7.5 billion ($167.29 million) in 2015.

Since 1999, the firm have already built over 26,000 affordable housing units mostly in Cavite and Iloilo.

Lancaster New City is currently the largest residential project of Pro-Friends with a total land area of 1,435 hectares and over 11,000 units sold.

Early in 2014, Pro-Friends formed Micara Land Inc., marking its foray into socialized and economy housing segment by offering housing projects starting from P650,000 ($14,491.79) to P1.2 million ($26,753.11). – Rappler.com

($1 = P44.85)