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* Converge sets the IPO price near the end of the guide
* IPO of fiber broadband company to raise $ 600 million
* Manila, nearby provinces remain under coronavirus restrictions (adds IPO details, background)
MANILA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Philippine fiber optic broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc traded near the bottom of a range indicated in its initial public offering (IPO) that aims to raise as much as $ 600 million, in the second largest listing in the country.
Converge is confident of a boom in demand for fiber broadband during the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced workers and students to stay home.
The IPO comes as strong share sales in Southeast Asia in the fourth quarter mark the return of investor interest in the region’s underperforming markets.
Thailand’s Siam Cement Group Packaging PCL priced its IPO on Thursday, at the country’s second-largest listing this year, which could raise as much as $ 1.5 billion.
In a notice to the local stock exchange, Converge said it would sell up to 1.73 billion shares, including an over-allotment option, at 16.80 pesos ($ 0.35) each.
Its IPO will raise 29 billion pesos ($ 600 million), only after the sale of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc shares for $ 627 million in 2013.
Converge, which includes the US private equity firm Warburg Pincus as a minority shareholder, had set the sales price guide between 16.50 and 19 pesos. Seven fundamental investors have pledged to buy shares.
The Philippines, which has nearly 332,000 COVID-19 cases, has the highest number of confirmed infections in Southeast Asia.
President Rodrigo Duterte imposed in mid-March one of the longest and strictest blockades in the world to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Business operations and the movement of people in and around the capital Manila, a hotspot for the coronavirus, remain restricted. ($ 1 = 48.31 Philippine pesos) (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Edited by Shri Navaratnam and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
