Philippine Business Bank to raise $79 mln in country's first IPO of 2013

MANILA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Philippine Business Bank,
a midsize savings bank, expects to raise 3.2 billion pesos ($79
million) through an initial public offering this month,
underwriters have said, in the country's first new listing this
year after a robust 2012.
The lender's IPO follows a boom in new listings in Southeast
Asian countries like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand in
2012 that helped investment banks weather a plunge in bigger
Asia-Pacific markets, including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
In the Philippines last year, companies raised a record of
about 220 billion pesos ($5.4 billion) from five IPOs and
several follow-on offerings, and another buoyant year is
expected on listings of companies like SMC Global Power, a unit
of San Miguel Corp.
The final offer price for Philippine Business Bank's IPO was
set at 31.50 pesos per share following the bookbuilding process,
joint lead underwriters and bookrunners First Metro Investment
Corp and SB Capital Investment Corp said in a letter to the
stock exchange dated Feb. 1.
That was 25 percent lower than the tentative maximum price
of 41.94 pesos announced earlier. There was no indicative range
for the offer.
"I think the issue regarding PBB is that it's too small for
institutional clients. It's really for retail investors," said
an analyst at a brokerage firm, who asked not to be identified
because he was not authorised to speak to the news media.
"Normally if it would be a midsized or big offering with a low
price, then it would be an indication that demand is weak."
Philippine Business Bank, which caters mainly to small- and
medium-sized enterprises, said it would use the proceeds to
increase lending and invest in securities. The listing is
scheduled for Feb. 19.
The bank - owned by Filipino businessman Alfredo Yao, who
also owns juice maker Zest-O Corp and budget airline Zest Air -
had a net profit of 624 million pesos ($15.4 million) for the
first nine months of 2012, up 14 percent from a year earlier.

UPCOMING ISSUES
From IPOs alone, companies in the Philippines raised $787.5
million last year, the most since 2007, helped by GT Capital
Holdings Inc's $500 million deal, which was the
country's second-biggest IPO ever, Thomson Reuters data shows.
In 2013, the Philippine Stock Exchange hopes that
fundraising from both IPOs and follow-on offerings will match
the record set last year, helped by the introduction of new
products such as exchange-traded funds, said Hans Sicat, the
president of the bourse. The exchange is awaiting approval from
the securities regulator of proposed rules for ETF trading.
The local stock market gained 33 percent last year,
the second best-performing index in Asia after Thailand's,
lifted by optimism about the Philippine economy - the fastest
growing in Southeast Asia. The main index is up about 9 percent
so far this year.
Among notable companies that plan to go public this year is
SMC Global Power, the power generation unit of San Miguel.
SMC Global, the country's biggest power producer, had
initially planned to raise as much as $850 million through an
IPO in 2011. But it delayed that listing, citing unfavourable
market conditions.
Companies that might conduct follow-on offerings this year
include another San Miguel unit, San Miguel Brewery Inc
, which has until June 30 to sell shares to meet a 10
percent minimum public float rule and avoid delisting from the
local exchange.
($1 = 40.7050 Philippine pesos)

(Reporting by Erik dela Cruz and Rosemarie Francisco;
Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto Jr in Hong Kong; Editing
by Chris Gallagher)