The dream IPOs

It is 5 p.m. and life is bustling in this district owned by conglomerates, here in the city where billion dollar deals are made. I am sitting in a velvet chair in a corner of a swanky speakeasy, waiting for a shot of my favorite drink – single malt, 18.

One of my favorite sources invited me for a drink. It is always a pleasure to listen to him and I thought a drink would be nice so I gladly showed up.

Source is a market guy, who with some ribbing and more drinks, could dish out the best leads but as always, my favorite question is what’s the next IPO?

What can market investors look forward to in 2018 after the relatively small number of listings last year? Will next year’s performance beat 2017’s relatively short list?

I was doing a mental list of my questions while savoring my drink when my source finally shows up. He was late for a few minutes.

“You are always busy with deals,” I teased. It is not always the case, he says. The market has not been as vibrant as they would have wanted it to be.

But, he says, there are three dream IPOs which – fingers crossed – are likely to happen.

 “Hopefully, it’s just a matter of timing,” he says.

MPIC Hospital

One of the so-called dream IPO is the planned public offering of Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. (MPHHI), the healthcare group of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC).

The market is waiting for this and is quite excited, said my source.  

When I asked David Nicol, MPIC’s savvy chief financial officer about this during the company’s quarterly briefing in Makati last month, he said it’s not in the plans at the moment, but it can possibly happen in 2019.

That’s good news indeed to market investors waiting for MPIC’s listing.

He said it might not be next year because the funding plans for 2018 have already been set.

Instead, “in 2019, it might be.” This, Nicol said, would depend on whether there are alternative funding plans.

MPHHI is doing well and has been on an expansion mode, acquiring hospitals around the country. It has a portfolio of 14 hospitals nationwide including six provincial hospitals in Davao, Bacolod, Tarlac, Zamboanga, Bulacan and General Santos.

 Eight hospitals are located in Metro Manila. These are Makati Medical Center, Asian Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Marikina Valley Medical Center, and Jesus Delgado Memorial Hospital.

Completing MPHHI’s healthcare portfolio are two healthcare colleges Davao Doctors College and Riverside College in Bacolod, two primary care clinics – Megaclinic in SM Megamall Ortigas and TopHealth in SM San Lazaro, and a newly built cancer center in joint venture with Lipa Medix in Batangas.

The company has targeted to reach 25 to 30 hospitals in the next 10 years, alongside 30 primary care clinics in the next five years. Its core net income grew 13 percent to P1.5 billion in the nine month prior.

SMC Global Power

Aside from MPIC Hospitals, another dream IPO is SMC Global Power, my source said.

The last time I talked to tycoon Ramon “RSA” Ang about this, he said last month that this, too, is just a matter of timing.

He said they are just threshing out thorny issues with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) over the Ilijan and Sual power plant management contracts. 

PSALM, which manages the assets and liabilities of National Power Corp., scrapped SMC Global’s independent power producer administrator agreement, citing alleged unpaid payments

But the power firm said it had been religiously paying its fees to the government, claiming the issue involved an interpretation of the contract.

The case is pending in court.  

SMC announced as early as 2013 its plan to raise $700 million from the public offering, supposedly in the same year. However, this was deferred to 2014 until the issue with PSALM erupted.

But I’m sure that with Ang’s business acumen, market investors can count on this issue being resolved.  

Monde Nissin

 Completing the list of the three dream IPOs is Filipino snack food giant Monde Nissin.  

I have been writing about this for the past two of three years now, but my source said the family decided to defer the offering because they were able to secure alternative funding for their requirements.

 The company has been putting this on hold since 2015 and at one point, was already in talks with banks to handle the transaction.  The plan was to raise an estimated $300-to $500-million to boost operations as the company strives to become a significant food and beverage player in the Asia Pacific region. 

 Monde Nissin is owned by Betty Ang, hailed by Forbes as the 26th richest person in the Philippines in 2016, with a net worth of $800 million.  The company has been among the Top 1000 companies in the Philippines since 2000.

 These are the three dream IPOs. My source said, it’s just a matter of timing. 

Shall we drink to that? I asked.

“Let’s wait and see.” 

Iris Gonzales’ email is [email protected]