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ORCA Cold Chain Solution schedules P1.5 billion initial public offering in late October
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The IPO will consist of 1.04 billion primary shares and 444.8 million secondary shares at a price of P0.88 per share
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ORCA plans to use the IPO proceeds for land acquisition to accommodate facility expansion and other value-added services, as well as for general working capital
Cold storage operator ORCA Cold Chain Solution Inc is tapping the stock market for a P1.5-billion initial public offering in late October to finance expansion projects.
Filing documents released by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 7 showed the company is applying to sell as many as 1.48 billion primary and secondary common shares at a maximum price of P0.88 per share.
If the shares are overbought, the company will exercise an over-allotment option to issue additional 222 million shares.
ORCA, owned by businessman Michael Cosiquien, said it would use the IPO proceeds to buy land for expansion of existing facilities to accommodate other value-added services, develop new cold storage plants and new business initiatives, and to boost its general working capital.
The company operates two cold storages – one in Bagumbayan, Taguig and the other Poblacion, Caloocan City. They have a combined capacity of 34,342 pallet positions, equivalent to more than 34.3 million kilograms.
The company is poised to raise P1.498 billion from its maiden offering, including the over-allotment shares, and plans to use the P841.1 million net proceeds from the sale to acquire land for its new cold storage facilities.
Some reports question the timing of Orca’s IPO as it would come at a turbulent time when stock markets worldwide are gripped by inflation and recession fears.
ORCA plans to develop a facility with a fully automated storage and retrieval system as well as an in-house warehouse management system that reduces inefficiencies, pilferage, and cross-contamination, assets that are its main attraction.
The company is one of the few in the Philippines that uses automation on this scale, its prospectus says. The company also highlighted its available capacity to store a million Covid19 vaccines, as it was tapped by local governments as storage for their vaccines.
ORCA plans to offer the shares from October 20 to 24, then list them on the Small, Medium and Emerging Board of the Philippine Stock Exchange on November 3.
The sole issue manager and underwriter will be Investment Capital Corporation of the Philippines.
