Saturday, July 11, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
THE property arm of the Gokongwei group said it has increased the amount of debt papers it sold to meet high demand from retail and institutional investors.
In a statement, Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) said it has decided to increase the size of its peso-denominated retail bond issue to P5 billion from P3 billion as the sale was more than four times oversubscribed.
These bonds carry a yield of 8.50 percent per annum and a tenor of five-year and one day and have been assigned the highest credit rating of PRS Aaa by Philippine Ratings Services Corp. (PhilRatings). This meant that the debt issue is of the highest quality with minimal credit risk and that the issuer’s capacity to meet its financial obligations is extremely strong.
HSBC and SB Capital Investment Corp. were appointed as joint issue managers for the bond issue while BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., HSBC, and SB Capital acted as joint lead managers and underwriters. HSBC was also the sole bookrunner for the transaction.
Proceeds of the bond sale will be used to fund capital expenditure requirements, which the company earlier said would amount to P8 billion this year, P2 billion less than it originally set. In 2008, it spent P9.5 billion.
The company develops and operates shopping malls and hotels, mixed-use properties, office and residential buildings. It is also into land and residential housing developments, including socialized housing projects located in key cities and other urban areas nationwide.
During the second-quarter ending March of its fiscal year 2009, RLC said its profit rose by a fifth to P935.7 million from P776.5 million in the same period last year. Its second quarter revenues, however, slipped nearly 5 percent to P2.713 billion from P2.840 billion in the same three-month period last year.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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