MANILA, March 3 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc's Philippine unit said on Thursday it would not hesitate topostpone its planned initial public offering this year if marketconditions remain volatile, even if compliance with the listingrequirement is long overdue.
"If the market is down, even if we are ready, we will not doit," Shell Philippines Chairman Edgar Chua told reporters on thesidelines of a Shell-organised climate change forum in Manila.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp, which operates one of thecountry's two refineries, is required under a neartwo-decade-old local law to offer at least 10 percent equity tothe public.
The company had previously cited unfavourable marketconditions and the need to upgrade its local refinery indeferring a share sale. In December it said it had completed theupgrade of the 110,000 barrels per day refinery.
Chua said the goal is still to launch the IPO within thesecond half of the year and the size could even be bigger thanthe minimum requirement.
"We are working on the IPO. The only question is, is themarket good or bad?," he said.
The good news is Pilipinas Shell made profit last year, hesaid, rebounding from losses of up to 8.5 billion pesos ($181million) the year before due mainly to the slump in oil prices.
He declined to disclose a 2015 profit figure, saying theaudited financial statement has not yet been released.($1 = 46.9780 Philippine pesos) (Reporting by Erik dela Cruz, editing by David Evans)
