Dominant telco PLDT has given its approval to the plan of German e-commerce firm Rocket Internet to proceed with an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2014.
In August, PLDT and Rocket announced a global strategic partnership to drive the development of online payments solutions in emerging markets. Under the terms of the partnership agreement, PLDT would invest $333 million in Rocket, 50 percent of which has already been paid.
Following the announcement of Rocket’s intention to proceed with the IPO, PLDT will now pay in full the remaining 50 percent of its investment in Rocket.
The Rocket IPO is intended to take place later in 2014.
The offer, if pursued, is expected to consist solely of new shares from a capital increase. The new shares will be of the same class and bearing the same rights as shares held by current Rocket shareholders.
Currently, the shareholders consist of Global Founders, which is the investment vehicle of Oliver Samwer, the founder and CEO of Rocket, and his brothers, Investment AB Kinnevik, Access Industries, PLDT, United Internet, and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. All existing shareholders of Rocket Internet will remain invested and will not sell any shares as part of the offering.
All six shareholders have signed lock up commitments not to sell or otherwise dispose of their shares for at least 12 months.
Rocket intends to use the proceeds from the IPO to finance its future growth through the launch of new businesses and providing further equity capital to its network of companies.
