Philippines: DITO's follow-on offering approved by the SEC

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DITO CME had its follow-on offering (FOO) approved by the SEC on Friday. The follow-on offering covers the sale of up to 1,953,500,000 common shares priced between P1.00 and P2.15 per share, and could net DITO up to P4.12 billion if sold at the top of that range. The tentative dates are for the offer period to run from September 5 through September 12, with listing scheduled for September 20.

The last time DITO tried to sell shares was back in February of 2022 when it failed so hard that it forced the PSE to make structural changes to the safeguards that need to be in place to prevent future companies from pulling a DITO. Both DITO and China Bank Capital [CBC 39.95 ?0.1%; 132% avgVol] were sanctioned for the fundraising abomination. While DITO's ownership is still basically the same, it has a new Chief Financial Officer and another couple years of fundraising experience under its belt to perhaps navigate this new process with more consideration and elegance. We won't get final dates until the PSE has a chance to review and approve the FOO. Will investors get the same sweet deal that Summit got last year when it bought 10% of DITO for P1.00 per share, or was that a special friend price that applied only to that unrelated third party? We'll find out pretty soon.