ABS-CBN TO RESTRUCTURE CAPITAL TO FUND EXPANSION!

ABS-CBN Corp., the listed media broadcast arm of the Lopez Group of Companies, is restructuring a portion of its capital to pave the way for a fundraising exercise in 2013 to partly finance a two-year expansion plan that will include “new business lines.”

ABS-CBN said in a Philippine Stock Exchange filing on Monday that its board approved the reclassification of 200 million of its unissued common shares with a par value of P1 each into 1 billion voting preferred shares with a par value of P0.20 each.

The preferred stock will also be non-convertible, non-participating, cumulative and redeemable, the disclosure showed. A shareholders’ meeting has been set on November 15 to approve the plan.

Sources with direct knowledge of the plan said the preferred shares will be issued to existing ABS-CBN shareholders. The fund-raising activity itself will likely take place next year with ING Bank as financial advisor, one source said, although the final size and terms of offer have yet to be determined.

“The fund-raising [effort] is for new initiatives [such as] new lines of businesses [and] partly organic growth also for digital terrestrial television,” Melissa Ortiz, investor relations head of ABS-CBN, said in a text message.

“We will provide details of the new initiatives at the appropriate time,” she added.

ABS-CBN slid 0.31 percent to P32.55 each on Monday, giving it a market value of P24.9 billion. The company, which operates one of the country’s top two television networks, is a unit of listed Lopez Holdings Corp.

ABS-CBN reported earlier that net income in the six months through June declined 45 percent to P927 million despite an increase in revenues due to the absence of non-recurring gains booked last year.

Removing the effects from the sale of SkyCable depositary receipts recognized in the first half of 2011 amounting to P674 million, net income still decreased by 8 percent, ABS-CBN  said. Consolidated revenues rose 9 percent to P15.3 billion in the first half, led by advertising and consumer sales.

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