PUBLICLY listed Fil-Estate Land Inc. has reversed course on its recently cancelled capital raising exercise, telling the stock exchange Tuesday that it would now proceed with the plan to offer shares to interested shareholders.

In a letter to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Fil-Estate said it decided to reopen the offer "as a sign of good faith and to provide subscribing shareholders with the opportunity to accomplish their intention of availing of the shares" in the company.

Last month, Fil-Estate cancelled the stock rights offer--that would have raised as much as P577 million in fresh funds for the real estate firm--due to weak interest among its shareholders.

The stock rights offer was part of the company's larger plan to raise its authorized capital stock from P2.8 billion to P5 billion, as it continues to search for a solution to the financial woes that have beset it since the 1997 East Asian financial crisis.

Fil-Estate's sudden decision to allow shareholders to subscribe to shares, however, will not result in new capital being infused into the company.

According to its letter to the PSE, buyers who subscribe to the reopened stock rights offer will be sold "outstanding shares currently held by Fil-Estate Management Inc. (FEMI)--meaning that the controlling firm will be selling off some of its own shares to other interested parties.

The company said that the shares would be made available to interested buyers at P1 a share--the same price initially quoted under the original stock rights offer.

Fil-Estate told the stock exchange that parties who had initially subscribed to the original offer have already received their refunds.

On top of the weak investor sentiment toward the firm, Fil-Estate also told the bourse that it had been threatened by a minority shareholder with a damage suit if it proceeds with the capital raising activity that would dilute the holdings of other owners.

In opposing the scheme, minority shareholder Pryce Gases Inc. said that the P1 a share offer price gave the existing shareholders--especially FEMI--undue advantage in subscribing to the shares.

This because FELI's book value is worth "about P3.40 per share" as of mid-2006, while its net asset value supposedly stands at "about P8 per share," said Pryce Gases.

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