DITO CME is the holding company of telecom challenger DITO Telecommunity, a venture with China Telecom.
According to a notice to the Philippine Stock Exchange, all 1.95 billion shares were fully purchased by investors and are set to be listed on the PSE on Dec. 6 (Friday).
Strong demand
Eduardo Francisco, president of deal arranger BDO Capital & Investment Corp., said the offer experienced strong demand, even among clients of stockbrokers.
“Some brokers asked to be allocated extra shares. Demand was strong,” he said on Wednesday.
Most of the shares went to larger institutional buyers
DITO CME chief financial officer Leo Venezuela confirmed on Wednesday the offer saw robust demand.
“[It] was fully subscribed with institutional investors outnumbering retail and individual participants,” he told InsiderPH in a text message.
Discounted shares
DITO CME earlier priced the offer shares at P1.05 per share, the lower end of the range marketed to investors from P1 to P2.15 apiece.
This was also a a roughly 45 percent discount to its share price at the time.
DITO CME shares fell 11.67 percent to P1.59 each on Wednesday, valuing the holding company at about P31 billion.
DITO CME prepares for ownership change
The offering was launched to comply with Philippine Stock Exchange rules as the group undergoes a major ownership shift, with Dennis Uy poised to cede control while retaining a minority stake.
Singapore-based Summit Group, which currently owns about 25 percent, is expected to increase its stake to nearly 50 percent of the holding company.
Last year, entities controlled by the Summit Group started investing in DITO via private share deals at P1 each.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
