By Neil
Jerome C. Morales (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 1, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines - Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the listed investment holding
company of the Gotianun family, said it plans to raise as much as $300 million
through an overseas bond sale.
Fresh funds
from the bond sale, which follows a successful bond issuance of a local
conglomerate, will used for capital spending this year, the company told the
local bourse yesterday.
In a meeting,
the board of directors of FDC approved the company’s plan “to issue and float
bonds in the offshore market with an aggregate principal amount between $200
million to $300 million.”
“The proceeds
from the bond issuance will be used by the corporation to finance its capital
requirements for 2013,” it added.
Target date
for the bond sale is within the second quarter, subject to the approval of
concerned government agencies.
The exact
amount and other details like the yield and maturity will determined by
management, FDC said.
Local
conglomerates are increasingly tapping the international bond market for fresh
capital.
Early this
month, the overseas unit of taipan John Gokongwei’s investment vehicle JG
Summit Holdings Inc. raised $750 million by selling corporate bonds overseas to
finance general corporate expenses. GT Capital Holdings Inc. of banking tycoon
George S.K. Ty, on the other hand, plans to issue P10 billion worth of
fixed-rate bonds to support its capital expenditure program.
The Filinvest
Group is one of the country’s leading conglomerates, with interests in real
estate development (Filinvest Land Inc.), hotel (Crimson Resort and Spa at
Seascapes Resort Town in Cebu), financial and banking services (East West
Banking Corp.) and sugar manufacturing (Pacific Sugar Holdings).
Its power
generation and distribution unit FDC Utilities Inc. is pursuing clean coal
projects mostly in Mindanao, with a total of 395 megawatts of generating
capacity expected to be committed by 2017.
The group
first made its presence felt in the power sector in 1995 via East Asia Power
Corp. and eventually, Cebu Private Power Corp. from 1998 until 2000.
FDC is also
joining the bidding for the P17.5-billion Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
project to expand and operate the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
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