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Share prices of condominium builder Anchor Land Holdings, Inc., failed to take off on the listed firm’s first trading day even as the market started to climb after a weeklong losing streak due to credit shakeout abroad.
Trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange under the symbol ALHI, Anchor Land opened at P6.10 a share and climbed to P8.90 before closing at P8.10, around 10 percent lower than its offer price of P8.93 a share.
The company was affected by a technical error in one of the brokerage firms in the exchange, Ron Rodrigo of Unicapital Securities, Inc., said.
“Instead of opening higher, it opened at the bottom,” Rodrigo pointed out. This was confirmed by BDO Capital and Investment Corp., the issuer’s lead underwriter.
ALHI listed 65 million new common shares and another 21.66 million new common shares for over allotment option, which is equivalent to 25 percent of the company’s outstanding capital stock after the initial public offering.
The company raised more than P770 million in gross proceeds, which brought its market capitalization to P3.2 billion.
Mall tycoon Henry Sy bought 10 percent of the company’s stake, or 34.7 million shares, for P312.55 million, making him one of ALHI’s biggest investors.
Commenting on the state of the industry, Steve Li, ALHI vice-chairman, expressed optimism about the prospects of real estate in the Philippines, allaying fears that the lending problems in the United States may affect property sales in the country.
Li underplayed the contribution of the overseas Filipinos to the health of the industry, seeing that it only makes up an “insignificant” percentage of ALHI’s total market and, thus, limits the company’s exposure to payment defaults as access to credit abroad tightens.
The executive said ALHI’s developments, which include Lee Tower in Binondo, Mayfair Tower in UN Avenue and Mandarin Square, serve mostly the Filipino-Chinese community.
In a recent briefing, Conrado Bate, chief executive of CitisecOnline, warned that the local market should have a “heads up” attitude and not be complacent about subprime problems in the US that sent global stock markets tumbling.
The problems with subprime mortgage—the sector that gives home loans to borrowers with weak credit—have spread to wider credit woes and analysts in the US are not certain how deep the problems run.
According to Bate, an indication that the credit problems have reached Philippine shores is when the companies payment collections are affected.
“You have to find if these companies already have payment defaults,” Bate said.
“I’m not saying [that the problem is already here but] if your really think beyond what is happening [right now] it could happen. It could be that bad. [In the meantime], it’s not here yet. No need to panic.”
- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
ManilaTimes.Net
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