By Jenniffer
B. Austria | Posted on Apr. 12, 2013 at 12:01am
[
manilastandardtoday.com ]
Property
developer Mega-world Corp. successfully raised $250 million, or over P10
billion, from the dollar bond market to fund major projects this year.
Lauro Baja,
chief Philippine representative of UBS AG, which acted as the sole bookrunner
of the debt issue, said the 10-year US dollar-denominated bonds fetched 4.25
percent, the lowest for 10-year Philippine dollar bonds. It was also the lowest yield for an unrated
issuer in Southeast Asia.
“The strength
of the underlying credit of Megaworld combined with the solid shareholder
support from Alliance Global Group Inc. allowed them to achieve the lowest ever
yield for a 10-year Philippine corporate bond,” Baja said in a mobile message.
Baja said the
order book was over $500 million and drew more than 40 investors, including
fund managers, banks, private banks and insurance companies.
Megaworld
said earlier it would use the proceeds from the issue for general corporate
purposes.
The bonds
will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd.
Megaworld
plans to spend P35 billion in capital expenditures this year as it remains
bullish about the property sector.
It plans to
launch 10 new residential projects in the first half of the year. One of the projects launched this year is
Paseo Heights, a 30-story residential tower within the Makati central business
district offering a total of 320 units.
It also
recently announced the doubling of its investments in the 16-hectare project in
Mactan, Cebu to P20 billion.
The property
will be transformed into a township development that will include luxury
residential condominiums, office towers, a world-class lifestyle mall, a hotel
and sports and leisure facility.
Megaworld is
a pioneering developer of integrated live-work-play-learn township
communities. These townships include
Eastwood City in Quezon City, Newport City in Pasay City and McKinley Hill,
McKinley West and Uptown Bonifacio in Taguig City.
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