PETRON Corp. on Tuesday reported that it had earned P16.83 billion from an offering of preferred shares that ended last week.In a filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange, Petron said it completed the second tranche offering of Series 4 preferred shares on September 13.The 13,000,000 shares, with an oversubscription of option of up to 4,000,000, were taken from a shelf registration approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year.In particular, Series 4D proceeds totaled P8.50 billion, P3.125 billion of which came from corporate investors and P5.374 billion from institutional investors.The Series 4E shares, meanwhile, earned P8.33 billion — P4.313 billion from corporates and P4.017 billion from individual investors.The offer price was P1,000 per share and the dividend rates were set at 6.8364 percent per year for the Series 4D and 7.1032 percent per year for the Series 4E.The shares will be issued and listed on September 23.In an offer supplement issued last September 3, Petron said that it expected to net P16.907 billion from the offering after underwriting, selling, listing and other fees.Proceeds will be primarily used to redeem Series 3A preferred shares, refinance maturing obligations and fund general corporate purposes, including crude oil purchases.Petron's board approved the latest share offering last June 26. Philippine Stock Exchange approval was secured in August and a permit to sell from the SEC was received earlier this month.BDO Capital and Investment Corp. served as the sole issue manager.Bank of Commerce, Chinabank Capital Corp., Philippine Commercial Capital Inc., PNB Capital and Investment Corp., and SB Capital Investment Corp. served as joint lead underwriters and bookrunners.Petron's share price fell by 4 centavos, or 1.55 percent, to P2.54 each on Tuesday amid a 1.0-percent gain for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.
