(By Jenniffer B. Austria | Dec. 09, 2014 | Manila Standard Today)
Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. of retail tycoon John Gokongwei has raised P1.3 billion from the sale of treasury shares.
Robinsons Retail said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it sold the entire 18.971 million treasury shares at P69 apiece via block sale to Robinsons Handyman Inc. chairman Wilfred Co.
“The sale of the RRHI treasury shares to Mr. Wilfred Co was a result of negotiations to enable one of the founding incorporators of RHI to be part of the holding company after the latter divested the 25 percent of his 45-percent shareholdings in RHI,” Robinsons Retail said.
The P69 per share sale price represents a 4.4-percent discount to stock’s closing price of P72.20 apiece Tuesday.
Net income of Robinsons Retail attributable to equity holders of the parent company increased 33.3 percent in the first nine months of the year to P2.3 billion from P1.8 billion on year, driven by higher income from operations as well as higher interest earnings.
Consolidated net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company surged 45.2 percent in the third quarter to P978 million from P673 million on year.
Consolidated net sales rose 19.1 percent to P56.2 billion from P47.2 billion, arising from the sales contribution of 276 new stores, including the newly-acquired businesses and higher-than-expected same store sales growth of 3.7 percent.
Robinsons Retail operates 10 retail formats under six business segments, namely department stores, supermarkets and home improvement, convenience, drug and specialty outlets.
It operates the second-largest department store and supermarket stores, in terms of revenues, under the brand name Robinsons Supermarket and Robinsons Department Stores.
It is also owns the second-largest home improvement store operator in the country under the brand name Handyman, Do It Best, True Value and Howards Storage World.
Robinsons Retail is the exclusive local franchisor of Japanese convenience store chain Ministop. It owns South Star Drug Store and a chain of specialty stores that carry the brand Toys R Us, Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins and Saizen.
