MANILA - A volatile local equities market has forced PepsiCo's bottler in the Philippines to slash its initial public offering price to attract investors, the company said yesterday.

In a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said it had lowered the indicative price for the IPO to between P3.50 and P4.30 (8.5 and 10.5 US cents) per share from its initial pricing of P6.40.

Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. (PCPPI) said it was bringing down the price to attract investors amid a volatile equities market.

The actual offer price, which may not fall within the indicative range, will be known by January 19, after a book-building exercise and discussions between PCPPI, the selling shareholders and underwriters, the company said.

The softdrink bottler announced in December plans to raise 7.9 billion pesos by offering up to 1.31 billion shares to finance expansion. This would amount to about 36 percent of the company's capital.

Up to 799.6 million shares or 70 percent of the total offer will be made available to foreign investors.

The international book-building exercise will run from January 8 to 18, and the domestic offer period will be from January 21 to 28.

Listing on the Philippine stock market was tentatively set for February 1.

The underwriters are UBS Investment Bank for the international offering, and ATR KimEng Capital Partners and BDO Capital Investment Corp for the domestic issue.*AFP

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