Cirtek raises $67 M from pref share sale

Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. successfully raised $67 million from the issuance of dollar-denominated preferred shares.

In a disclosure, Cirtek said the company benefitted from strong demand from market investors looking for opportunities to park their funds.

Specifically, demand for the company’s dollar-preferred shares was significant, in particularly from retail investors.

Cirtek chief finance officer Anthony Buyawe said that at the higher end of the pricing range of 6.25 percent to 6.75 percent per annum, indicative demand was $110 million.

“We eventually settled for a dividend rate of 6.125 percent per annum, which was still within Cirtek’s blended cost of debt, and at the same time gives a very decent return to investors,” Buyawe said.

He said that following the successful issuance of dollar preferred shares, the company is now in “a strong position to pursue strategic and growth ini- tiatives leading to an expanded international presence.”

Proceeds from the preferred shares offering will be used to partly fund strategic acquisitions, and for debt retirement, capacity expansion, and research and development.

For his part, Cirtek vice chairman and CEO Roberto Juanchito Dispo said the strong reception from retail investors reflect the growing acceptance and demand for dollar denominated products in the Philippine capital market.

Prior to the share sale, the company embarked on roadshows in Manila, Cebu and Davao.

“We saw that Filipinos are in fact already diversifying their investments into dollars,” Dispo said.

The company tapped BPI Capital Corp. as the sole issue manager and bookrunner. Joint lead underwriters are BPI Capital and RCBC Capital.

Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. is the holding company of Cirtek Electronics Corp. and Cirtek Electronics International Corp.

Through its subsidiaries, the company is primarily engaged in three major activities. These are the design, production and delivery of state of the art base station antenna systems for wireless communication, complete manufacturing solutions for value-added, highly integrated radio frequency, microwave and millimeterwave technology products; and full service turnkey solutions including wafer probing, wafer back grinding, assembly, packaging and final testing of semiconductor devices.