OCEANAGOLD (Philippines) Inc., operator of the Didipio gold-copper mine in Northern Luzon, launched its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday — the first maiden offering by a mining company in a decade and also the first in the local market for 2024.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday granted OceanaGold Philippines a permit to sell up to 456 million secondary common shares, equivalent to a 20-percent ownership interest in the company, whose parent firm is Toronto-listed OceanaGold Corp.

The company has set the final offer price at P13.33 per share, 23 percent lower than the initial target of P17.28. The reduced share price will cut the expected proceeds of the IPO to P6.08 billion from the original target of P7.9 billion.

"Available proceeds from the offering, net of fees and taxes, are expected to be applied to the repayment of OceanaGold's drawn bank debt. The company had drawn bank debt of $135M [as] at Dec. 31, 2023," its parent firm said in a statement last week.

The IPO is required under the terms of the firm's mining permit and is scheduled to run until May 6.

The listing of the shares — to be traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange's (PSE) main board under the stock code "OGP" — has been set for May 13.

"This listing represents the first IPO in the mining industry in the Philippines in the last decade," said Joan Adaci-Cattiling, OceanaGold Philippines' president and general manager.

"We have received strong interest to date from both local and international institutional investors and we look forward to now opening up the IPO to local retail investors. The listing ... represents our strong commitment to our communities, local government units, the national government and our many other stakeholders."

BDO Capital and Investment Corp. is the IPO's global coordinator, domestic underwriter, and bookrunner while CLSA Ltd. is the international underwriter.

"The Didipio mine is an established, low-cost, long-life, operating mine that has a long history of generating strong free cash flow. The mine is the second largest producer of gold and copper in the Philippines," BDO Capital President Eduardo Francisco said.

With its market debut next month, OceanaGold Philippines will be the first holder of a mineral processing permit to list on the PSE. brix lelis