MANILA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Philippine specialty retailer SSIGroup Inc has set an indicative listing price of 7.00 to 7.50pesos per share, IFR reported, as it looks to raise as much as$166 million in the country's third and biggest initial publicoffering this year.
SSI cut the maximum price from the previously announced12.50 pesos per share.
Fresh capital would support the company's expansion plans toexploit rising consumer spending in the fast-growing Philippineeconomy, despite anxieties over a global economic slowdown.
The Philippine retailer of upscale brands such as Hermès,Prada and Gucci will sell up to 993.8 million shares, includingthe over-allotment option of 129.6 million shares, worth 7.45billion pesos ($166 million) at the maximum indicative price.
Six cornerstone investors will be buying 335.6 millionshares, or 38.8 percent of the base size, said IFR, a ThomsonReuters publication. They are Capital Research, Macquarie Funds,BPI Asset Management, Government Service Insurance System,Havenport Asset Management and York Capital.
Books will close on Oct. 22 and listing on the PhilippineStock Exchange is set for Nov. 7.
SSI Group, which retails 103 international brands in thePhilippines and operates convenience stores through theFamilyMart chain, tapped HSBC, Credit Suisse(Singapore) Ltd, and BPI Capital Corp to manage the IPO.
The Philippines is Southeast Asia's third best performingstock market this year, with the benchmark index up about18 percent, behind share markets in Thailand and Vietnam. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila and S. Anuradha ofIFR in Singapore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)