Upson International Corp. shares traded higher at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday when it rounded its debut as a listed company by closing at P2.90 a share.
It traded slightly up at P2.42 from its P2.40 listing price and went as low as P2.27 in morning trades but later recovered and moved higher to P3.30 per share.
PSE president Ramon S. Monzon said Upson’s target price may not have been the target price that its founders and owners wanted.
“Still they went ahead with their initial public offering because they realize that the IPO price is not the be-all and end-all of their IPO journey. It is just the beginning,” Monzon said.
The computer retailer and information technology firm initially targeted a price of up to P4.88 per share but slashed this by more than half.
“I hope the story of Upson inspires entrepreneurs who are also want to see their business to become publicly-listed,” Monzon said.
Company president and CEO Arlene Sy said their ambition in 2003 was to be all over the Philippines and within 18 months opened 16 stores around Metro Manila and key cities such as Cebu and Davao.
Upson today operates a retail network of 200 stores with retail brand outlets such as Octagon Computer Superstore, Micro Valley, Gadget King and Octagon Mobile as well as concept and specialty stores like Acer, HP, Brother and Silvertec in select locations.
“We are happy to note that we had a healthy participation of institutional investors, with a significant majority of investors from foreign funds which is a strong testament to their confidence in our company, the retail sector, and the Philippines at large,” Sy said.
The Upson offering, the second initial public offering of the year, consisted of 625 million primary common shares with an over-allotment option of up to 62.5 million shares priced at P2.40 per share. The IPO raised P1.65 billion.
First Metro Investment Corp. was the issue manager, bookrunner and joint lead underwriter with RCBC Capital Corp. as joint lead underwriter.
Net proceeds was estimated at P1.42 billion, which will fund 250 new stores over five years.
