By Karen Lema and Yantoultra Ngui
MANILA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Shares of Maynilad Water Services were little changed in their Philippine debut on Friday after the utility raised 34.3 billion pesos ($590 million) in the country’s largest listing since 2021.
Maynilad, the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines, serves the west zone of Metro Manila and parts of Cavite province.
Its stock opened at 15 pesos, matching the IPO offer price, and last traded at 14.98 pesos, down 0.13%, with an intraday range of 14.98 to 15.00, according to Philippine Stock Exchange data. The benchmark PSE index dropped 0.7%.
The IPO comprised 1.66 billion common shares and 24.9 million shares allocated to First Pacific Co Ltd to maintain its current shareholding, according to the prospectus. The offer includes an overallotment option of up to 249 million shares and an upsize option of 354.7 million secondary shares.
Proceeds will fund capital expenditure and general corporate purposes, the company said.
“This IPO is really the culmination of all those years of hard work, the result of everyone’s effort to improve, to grow, and to deliver better service for our customers,” Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez told reporters during a briefing on Friday.
International Finance Corp and Asian Development Bank were lead cornerstone investors, alongside domestic and international institutions including BDO Capital, BPI Asset Management, abrdn Malaysia and Maybank Asset Management Singapore.
“The international investors that we’ve attracted will bring global standards to Maynilad in sustainability, in governance, and even in operational excellence,” he said.
The IPO was arranged by BPI Capital as domestic lead underwriter, with HSBC, Morgan Stanley and UBS as joint global coordinators.
($1 = 58.1290 Philippine pesos)
(Reporting by Karen Lema in Manila and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
