Axelum shares fall 6.20% on market debut

Shares of coconut product manufacturer Axelum Resources Corp. closed at P4.69 apiece on Monday, down 6.20% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of P5.00 per share.

Listed on the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), shares of Axelum traded lower most of the session after opening at P5.29 per share, up 5.8%.

“Axelum shares fell more than 6% as investors preferred to remain in cash in the meantime," Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp., said.

“Though the prospects remain sound for the company, investors have been selling the market in general, and the company may have been [part of the] collateral damage,” he noted.

The Axelum IPO, a purely domestic offering, was the first to list on the main board of the PSE since March 2018.

Company officials consider Axelum more of a long-term investment.

“I don’t think we can expect more, considering how turbulent the times are,” Axelum chairman Romeo Chan told reporters earlier on Monday when Axelum shares started trading lower.

“Not to worry, ‘cause Axelum is a long-term play, the fundamentals are very sound. We’ve been doing well for the past 33 years so we expect it to continue doing well,” he said.

The company is a major exporter of products such as desiccated coconut, coconut milk powder, coconut milk/cream, reduced-fat coconut, sweetened/toasted/roasted desiccated coconut, coconut cooking oil and other coconut products.

Its products are sold to domestic and international food and beverage companies, confectioneries, bakeries, private label supermarkets and grocery store chains, food service industries, coconut coffee creamer manufacturers, cosmetics, and diet prepared food market.

Aside from Vita Coco, its notable customers include global brands such as The Hershey Co., Nestle, Unilever, Ferrero, General Mills, Campbell’s, Quaker, Kellogg’s, Cadbury Schweppes, and ConAgra Foods.

Axelum officials said the company has bagged a $1.3-billion deal to supply organic coconut milk powder to an international skin care manufacturer.

It plans to spend as much as P200 million on its own coconut water facility. —VDS, GMA News