Cirtek Holdings debuts on the Philippine Stock Exchange

(Disclaimer: My posts about any publicly listed corporation should not be construed as a buy/sell recommendation. Any person interested in stock investments must do his/her own due diligence review before deciding to buy or sell.)

I was invited recently to the debut of Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. (Cirtek) on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

(L-R) PSE President/CEO Hans B. Sicat; Cirtek VP/Director Nicanor Lizares; Cirtek Chairman/President Jerry Liu; Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines Honorable Jejomar Binay; PSE Chairman Jose T. Pardo; and CVCLaw Senior Partner and Former National Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr (photo taken from Cirtek Holdings website)

Cirtek's listing (which carries the stock symbol "CHIPS" on the exchange) came on the heels of a very successful initial public offering (IPO) which saw the stock oversubscribed over 4 times.

Because I did not know much about Cirtek (goes to show how long I've been away from the corporate world), I tried to google a little bit about the company.

Cirtek Holdings is the holding company of two wholly-owned subsidiaries namely Cirtek Electronics Corporation (CEC) and Cirtek Electronics International Corporation (CEIC). Both subsidiaries are involved in the assembly and testing of electronic devices. Cirtek was organized as a Philippine corporation on Feb. 10, 2011. Its recent IPO generated PhP 295.14-M which consisted of 42.16 million common stock representing 26% of its total issued and outstanding stock. The success of the IPO offering, considering that the offer period only lasted from Nov. 8-14, 2011 showed the public's positive acceptance of the stock.

Here's a short interview I conducted with Cirtek's Chief Financial Officer, Anthony Albert Buyawe, who I discovered was an ex-SGV person like me.

Cirtek does not produce ordinary chips. They make specialized chips that are used in laptops/tablets, defense industry (their lips remained sealed as to exactly what defense technology), auto industry, and medical industry, among others.

How well did it do? Well, on opening day last Nov. 18, the stock closed at P7.95, up from its P7 per share IPO price.

When asked if Cirtek benefited from the floods in Thailand, Cirtek was circumspect, stating that they were saddened by what happened in Thailand but acknowledged that they were indeed negotiating new contracts from flood-hit Thailand. Four of these contracts have been concluded and another 6 could be finalized by end of 2011 or early 2012.