PH Broadband Services Player Converge ICT Picks Banks For $700m IPO

Converge ICT Solutions Inc., a fiber-optic broadband services provider in the Philippines, has selected banks for its planned domestic initial public offering that could raise about $700 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO Unibank Inc., Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG are working with Converge ICT on the share sale, said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private. A listing by the Warburg Pincus-backed company could take place as early as this year, the people said.

At $700 million, Converge ICT’s IPO could be the biggest ever in the Philippines, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Southeast Asian nation hosted only one IPO so far this year, grocer MerryMart Consumer Corp., which raised about $31.5 million in May. The coronavirus outbreak and a 21% decline in the country’s benchmark index this year have dampened investor sentiment.

Deliberations around Converge ICT’s share sale are ongoing and details of the offering could still change, said the people. Representatives for BDO, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Warburg Pincus declined to comment, while representatives for BPI and Converge ICT didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Converge ICT, whose fiber network is limited to the main island of Luzon and covers two million households, plans to expand nationwide by 2021 and boost its international bandwidth. The company expects broadband penetration to double over the next five years from less than 15% of households currently, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Anthony Uy said in an interview in June.

Bloomberg