The stock price should more than double by October so the company could proceed with the share sale, Global Ferronickel Executive Vice-President Dante R. Bravo said yesterday.
“We still have enough time, but if our share price does not improve by October, likely we’re not going to make it this year. We still want to sell at above 3 pesos,” Mr. Bravo told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s stockholders meeting.
Global Ferronickel shares closed at P1.38 apiece yesterday, down 0.72%.
“It’s hard to say whether the stock price could even rise to P4
given the current market conditions... As much as possible we want an optimum price,” Mr. Bravo said, noting a drag from falling commodity prices.
Global Ferronickel had wanted to launch the equity offering in March, but failed to secured the green light from the Philippine Stock Exchange as well as from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The miner cut the size of a planned follow-on share sale to $300 million to $400 million, from an initial target of $600 million, but kept the price guidance at a maximum of P4.38 per share, Reuters reported in March.
The nickel miner is not in a hurry to raise funds and can tap internally generated cash to fund its operations, Mr. Bravo said.
The extended rainy season also affected shipments in June with export volumes flat in the first half of the year despite an early start to its mining operations, Mr. Bravo said.
Last year, Platinum Group Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Global Ferronickel, shipped 6.3 million wet metric tons of nickel ore equivalent to 117 vessels to China and Australia.
