AgriNurture to sell P500M of primary shares to Chinese businessmen

Publicly-listed AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) on Wednesday announced plans to offer up to P500.597 million worth of primary shares to China-based businessmen.

The proceeds from the share sale will fund the company’s operational expansion, particularly covering its rice importation business.

ANI president and CEO Antonio Tiu said the proceeds of the issuance will be used for expansion plans moving forward. “To fund importation of rice,” Tiu told GMA News Online.

In a separate regulatory filing submitted by AgriNurture head of Financial Sservices Glene Suyo, the company said its board approved the issuance during a meeting on Dec. 28, 2018.

The terms of the share sale cover up to 27.566 million primary stocks, priced at P18.16 per share to two businessmen.

Up to 21.536 million primary shares, valued at P391.093 million, will be offered to Chaohua Xia, general manager of Jiangsu Lunyiang Construction Ltd. in Jiangsu, China.

Also, 6.030 million shares will be offered to Jieching Li, a former banker and businessman engaged in property management in Guangzhou, China. The shares were valued at P109.504 million.

ANI signed an agreement last year with Vietnam Southern Food Corporation-Vinafood II to import as much as 2 million metric tons of long grain rice from Vietnam.

The agreement was an offshoot of ANI’s original proponent status, granted to it by the government, for a joint venture proposal on meeting the National Food Authority’s (NFA) rice supply requirements.

Under the agreement, ANI will be in charge of financing the procurement of as much as 500,000 metric tons of rice each quarter, equivalent to two weeks of the national inventory of subsidized NFA rice.

The NFA, on the other hand, will determine the type of commodity to be imported, its specifications, and quantity.

As of Dec. 4, 2018, the company has 768,274,088 common shares on record, with a foreign ownership level of 39.04 percent.

Under Philippine laws, companies involved in culture, production, milling, processing, and trading of rice and corn—except retailing— are allowed up to 40-percent foreign ownership.

The primary shares ANI will issue to its Chinese investors are equivalent to 3.46 percent of the 795,840,088 shares outstanding of the company. The transaction requires Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval.

The outstanding shares do not include the stock rights offering to existing shareholders of ANI.

According to the company, each existing shareholder of five shares is entitled to one stock rights share, at an offer price P1.00.

ANI shares closed the morning session Wednesday at P17.00 per share, unchanged from their previous closing price. —VDS, GMA News