MANILA, Philippines – National Book Store, the country’s largest bookstore chain, is likely to list in the Philippine Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2014.
At the annual stockholders meeting of Vulcan Industrial Mining on Wednesday, May 29, the shareholders approved the move to become the backdoor listing vehicle of the Ramos-led bookseller.
This followed the announcement on April 18 that the mining firm’s board gave the transaction its nod, as well as the renaming of the company into National Book Store Retail Corp.
The Vulcan board had approved the subscription of NBS to P3.4 billion worth of its shares.
NBS started as a small shop in Escolta before the Japanese occupation, selling novels and textbooks. Today, it has over 145 branches nationwide.
It is owned by the Ramos family, which also has interest in copper producer Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp., and Anglo Philippine Holdings.
Alfredo Ramos, son of National Book Store founder Socorro Ramos, ranked No. 30 in Forbes Magazine’s 2012 Philippines’ 40 richest list. He and family had a net worth of $250 million as of June 2012. – Rappler.com
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