Petron lists perpetual preferred shares
Oil refiner Petron Corp., which raised P10 billion from a warmly received issuance of preferred shares, Friday made a new record as the single-biggest perpetual preferred shares listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Petron listed 100 million preferred shares on the local bourse under the ticker PPREF. The debut was marred by some technical problems in the PSE that led to a rare extension of trading hours to 1 p.m. At the end of the extended session, the price of PPREF rose 2 percent to close at P102 a share.
From the original 50 million preferred shares worth P5 billion, Petron upsized its issuance by another 50 million shares or P5 billion to meet the high demand from institutional and retail investors.
“The strong response to our issue reflects the trust and confidence of the investment community in the viability of Petron over the long term,” Petron president Eric Recto said.
“It likewise confirms the public’s belief in the company’s undisputed market leadership backed by the biggest refining capacity in the country as well as an extensive distribution and service station network, sound financial and growth potential, including numerous synergies with the San Miguel group,” he added.
In a briefing, Recto said he was confident that Petron’s full-year corporate results for 2009 “would have negated the fairly negative results of 2008.”
“The outlook for 2010 remains to be cautious. It’s too early in the year to say how refinery margins will decline,” he said.
While commodity prices are generally trending up, Recto noted that refining margins were still lagging. He said this was due to the presence of many refineries in the region that, in turn, provide a lot of capacity and products, thereby keeping refinery margins low and forcing some players to cut back on production.
Category: ResourceAsia
