MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine entertainment group Viva Communications is expecting to raise P1.1 billion through an initial public offering within the first quarter of this year, Viva chairman Vic del Rosario said.

Viva, which is engaged mainly in the movie-making and music-recording businesses, is awaiting approval of the IPO by the Philippine Stock Exchange.

"We are eyeing March 5 as the listing date. We are just waiting for the PSE approval before starting our domestic offering," Del Rosario said.

The company intends to use the IPO proceeds to produce more films and acquire rights to foreign movies for showing on cable TV channels.

Based on its IPO prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Viva plans to sell up to 92.8 million new shares and 49.9 million secondary shares at a maximum offer price of 12.93 pesos per share.

The offer represents about 35 percent of the company's issued and outstanding capital stock.

BDO Capital and Investment Corp has been tapped as lead underwriter and Abacus Capital and Investments Corp as co-lead underwriter.

Viva posted net income of P121 million for the first 10 months of 2007, double what it earned in 2006. It has projected net profit of P330 million this year.

(1 US dollar = 41.48 pesos)