Philippines-based resort developer Discovery World Corp experienced a drop of 7.6% after its initial public offering today. The USD 13 million debut opened at a price of PHP 3.28 but dropped to PHP 3.03 per share within just one hour of trading. Discovery World went public about two weeks after one of the strongest typhoons on record devastated central Philippines. Although the provinces of Leyte and Ormoc suffered the brunt of the storm, it also hit the island of Boracay where a Discovery World resort is located.    

Discovery has told the Philippine Stock Exchange that the facilities in its Discovery Shores Boracay island resort did not sustain a lot of damage. However, the company said the resort may have to be closed while repair work is underway. Discovery said it had planned to begin repair of the resort this month. The company added that it did not expect the damage sustained by its Boracay resort to materially affect its operations and financial results.

Discovery World is the eighth company to go public in the Philippines in 2013. So far, the IPOs have raised a total of USD 1.35 billion. There are two more IPOs set in the Philippine bourse before the end of the year, although these are smaller in value.

According to a report on the Philippine Star, Discovery initially planned to raise PHP 1 billion for its IPO but trimmed the target to half at PHP 550 million. The debut was originally scheduled for August but was postponed to November 21.

The report also quoted Discovery World as saying that it would not anymore pursue its investment in Enderun Colleges Inc because it would be concentrating on its tourism business. Discovery also acquired Euro-Pacific Resorts Inc which owns and operates Club Paradise Resort in Coron, Palawan.