SM Investments Corporation (SMIC or SM) has added another feather in its cap as it garnered the “Most Innovative Deal” Award from financial magazine Alpha Southeast Asia for the merger of its property assets.
Alpha Southeast Asia magazine is a monthly financial magazine written for institutional investors, asset and fund management companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, other parts of Asia, US, Europe and the Middle East. The awarding ceremony will be held on January 23, 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This latest milestone in the already rich history of SM follows a weeklong intensive review of over 56 bank submissions covering over 200 deals or solutions from brokerages, commercial and investment banks and relevant institutions throughout the Southeast Asian region.
According to the respected magazine, “In line with SM Investments Corporation’s vision to create a leading and integrated real estate company in Asia, the company embarked on a highly transformational transaction to consolidate all of its real estate interests under its SMIC subsidiary and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) listed SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime) in May 2013.”
Plans for the consolidation of SM Investments’ property-related businesses under SM Prime were first announced on May 31 of this year involving a series of steps which included tender offers leading to the delisting of SM Development Corporation and Highlands Prime, Inc.; the merger of SM Land, Inc. (SM Land) with SM Prime through a share-for-share swap; and the acquisition by SM Prime of certain real estate companies and assets held by SM Investments in exchange for new shares in SM Prime. These transactions were subsequently approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission last October 10.
Alpha Southeast Asia also noted that the tender offers were a milestone in the reinvigorated equity markets of the Philippines, where for the first time, simultaneous tender offers for two PSE-listed companies were undertaken by a single purchaser, SM Land, and paid for with PSE-listed shares of another company, SM Prime, instead of the typical cash-for-shares consideration in a tender offer.
Furthermore, the SM Prime shares offered as consideration provided tendering shareholders a mechanism to directly migrate their stakeholdings to the entity, SM Prime, which now serves as the Group’s flagship real estate entity subsequent to the entire consolidation exercise.
Domestic merger has therefore helped SMIC increase synergies and organizational efficiencies among the various real estate business units, and will no doubt further enhance the value of its real estate businesses in the Philippines. SM Prime is now emerging as one of the Southeast Asia’s leading real estate companies with an aggregate land bank of more than 825 hectares and total assets of US$7.5 billion as of September 30, 2013.
This major achievement of SMIC is not only a recognition to the remarkable growth of the company through the years but is also an undeniable proof that a Filipino organization can excel in the international business arena.
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