The market sentiment is still fearful as prevailing news on the implementation of stricter lockdown is seen on major news. The President is mulling the implementation of stricter protocols due to the reported local cases of the Delta Variant as reported in his live telecast. PSEI fell down by -1.68% with foreign investors continuing to sell market equities with a net foreign selling of -572,264,915.

Meanwhile Asian Development bank (ADB) has maintained its economic growth outlook forecast on the Philippines at 4.5 percent in 2021 and 5.5percent in 2022.

This forecast is too low as compared to the government goal of having 6-7% growth this year.

According to ADB chief economist Yasuyuki Sawada the recovery of the Asian countries from the pandemic is in progress however we might see tempered growth due to different Variant of the Virus and delays on vaccine rollout

Globally, US markets recovered from the fearful trading the other day as Dow jones index was up by 1.62%, S&P500 up by 1.52% and Nasdaq composite index was up by 1.57%

The European market recovered as well, the FTSE European index was up by 0.54%

Asian equities rebounded as well, leaving PSE index lowest among its peers

Del Monte IPO has achieved a green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its P40.7B share sale

It will received its full approval and permit to sell shares on the market for the IPO once it submits certain requirements as mentioned by the SEC

In its statement last Friday July 15, according to the SEC “Among others, (Del Monte Philippines) will still have to submit the final prospectus for the IPO, which should provide more clarity on some information about the company and its offer”

The company is hoping to sell a total of 699.33Million shares with an overallotment option of 104.9Million shares. It will offer these shares at P54.80/share.

The initial plan was to conduct an IPO few years back but did not materials due to certain economic conditions.

It plans to sell majority of the shares or 70% of it to foreign investors, the remaining shares shall be offer to local investors

Offer date will be on August 9-13 and initial listing date will be on August 23, 2021

BDO Capital Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. were commission as joint local lead underwriters and book runners, with First Metro Investment Corp. as the local co-lead underwriter.

87% of Del Monte Philippines is owned by Del Monte Pacific limited with a ticker symbol of DELM, while SEA Diner Holdings Pte Ltd owns 13% a Singapore based investor

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