Ding! ding! ding! Wenceslao scales back billionaire ambitions
Construction magnate Delfin Wenceslao Jr. has scaled back his dream of becoming a dollar billionaire by this month.
Instead of the initial P77.7 billion valuation, Wenceslao’s 80 percent stake that would have remained with him and his family after the initial Wenceslao public offering of DM Wenceslao & Associates has now been valued at “only” P32.6 billion.
The lower valuation resulted from slashing the initial target IPO price of P22.90 a share to only P12, with DMW, the trading symbol of the Wenceslao company, expecting to raise P8.15 billion in gross proceeds from the ongoing offer.
That P8.15 billion figure is, incidentally, also less than half the P18.8 billion that Wenceslao had been hoping to raise during the original target listing in 2015 that was aborted due to poor market conditions.
In any case, should market sentiment improve before the June 22 closing, Wenceslao has set aside 101.8 million over-allotment shares for those with higher risk appetite willing to ride out the habagat-like conditions swamping the Philippine market.
Unlike the primary offer, the P1.22 billion proceeds from that over-allotment will be channeled to Wenceslao’s private kitty, a 75th birthday gift to himself while he still has the energy to enjoy the fruits of his five-decade labor.
With the Aseana City and the future Mandaue reclamation project, DMW has transitioned into a developer of commercial business district more than a construction company with an in-house contractor, a mini-Ayala of its dreams.
This time, the tables have been turned, with Ayala emerging as Aseana City’s anchor tenant to battle with the bigger Mall of Asia of the SM Group.
But that, as they say, is another story.
Aranetas seek a deal with Dominguez
The Araneta family that controls the listed courier company LBC Express is seeking a deal with PDIC chairman, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, and PDIC president Roberto Tan over the P1.82 billion collection case filed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.
The PDIC, as receiver and liquidator of the collapsed LBC Bank, haled the Aranetas to court in late 2015, claiming that the Spanish mestizo clan had treated the thrift bank, shorn of the legal and financial gobbledygook, as their private piggy bank.
According to LBC Express chairman and president Miguel Angel Camahort, both the LBC and PDIC counsels have agreed to file a joint motion to defer or suspend the preliminary conference before the Makati Regional Trial Court “in order to continue the discussion of an amicable settlement.”
The PDIC and the Aranetas are actually on their second round of negotiations, with the previous mediation talks having collapsed, after PDIC concluded that Dominguez and fellow board members, including Bangko Sentral Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., could not defend the Araneta/LBC Express terms in Plaza Miranda.
The P1.82-billion case has been raffled to a newlyminted judge, Redentor Cardenas, who for a long time was a government prosecutor in Ilocos Sur.
Zamora finds OPM to rehab Leyte plant
Do not be surprised if mining magnate Salvador “Buddy” Zamora II has lately been jamming with his rock band despite the non-stop rains.
Zamora has finally found the $300 million in other people’s money (OPM) needed to rehabilitate his phosphate fertilizer complex that was devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.
According to a news release from the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp. where Zamora is the chairman, the Leyte complex had already collected $150 million in insurance cover from Lloyd’s of London.
Another $150 million has come in by way of an “investment” from the AgriFields Group of Dubai, prompting Philphos to announce the July 1 start of the reconstruction of what had been biggest phosZamora phate plant in Southeast Asia.
Zamora still has a pending $150-million insurance claim from Lloyd’s, half of the $300-million policy that Philphos took to cover the 128-hectare manufacturing complex in the event of such a catastrophe.
According to Philphos, Zamora is also in the thick of negotiations with an unidentified group from mainland China to bankroll a socialized housing project, apparently starting also in Leyte.
Heard through the grapevine
Kris Aquino’s favorite aunt, Tingting Cojuangco, has found a new hideout for her old lumber.
No, no, it’s not in her Pacific Plaza shelter, but within much higher ground, all the way up in Antipolo.
The wooden planks and boards came from Tingting parents’ dismantled Guadalupe house, and all have been safely stashed in a vacant hilltop compound next to a landmark pyramid house.
The three-hectare, tree-lined compound has an unobstructed, sweeping view of the Makati and Ortigas skylines, and with its cooler climes make for an excellent weekend retreat.
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