Richest man in Philippines set to see his supermarket IPO sizzle

Manila: AllDay Marts Inc., a supermarket chain founded by the richest person in the Philippines, is poised to jump in its trading debut thanks to heavy retail investor interest.

AllDay’s offer was about four times oversubscribed, with the company and billionaire Manuel Villar raising a combined 4.52 billion pesos ($89 million) by selling 7.52 billion shares at 60 centavos each. Trading is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Manila.

“The interest from retail investors is quite strong,” said Andrei Soriano, an analyst at AP Securities Inc. “We got a lot of inquiries and many of our clients subscribed to the IPO. They expect this will be another MerryMart.”

Its peer MerryMart Consumer Corp. surged by the 50 per cent daily limit from its IPO price in each of its first three trading days in June 2020. Shares have tripled since they listed, though off their January peak.

AllDay is debuting at a time when the Philippine IPO market is booming. Six deals have raised a record $2.33 billion this year, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

Villar, whose fortune is $7.3 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is a draw for investors, say analysts, as is AllDay’s low nominal IPO price. The firm should be able to meet its target of tripling its stores in five years, they say, as Villar can provide locations through his Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., a builder of residential, office and retail developments in 147 cities and towns nationwide.