By Jenniffer B. Austria | Oct. 31,
2014 at 11:01pm [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
DoubleDragon Properties Corp. said
Friday it raised P7.4 billion from the issuance of seven-year fixed-rate notes.
DoubleDragon said in a disclosure to the
stock exchange it increased the size of the note issue to P7.4 billion, from
the original size of P6.5 billion, because of strong demand among institutional
investors.
It said proceeds would be used to
finance capital expenditures primarily for rollout of community malls as well
as office and leasing businesses including DoubleDragon Plaza at the Meridian
Park, Dragon8 Shopping Center-Divisoria and The Skysuites tower.
DoubleDragon Properties chairman Edgar
“Injap” Sia, in a statement, welcomed the support received for the company’s
fund-raising activity.
“We are glad that the great long-term
potential of DoubleDragon Properties Corp. has been recognized,” Sia said.
BDO Capital and Investments Corp.
facilitated the corporate notes issuance.
BDO Capital president Eduardo
Francisco said many banks participated in the notes issuance, although he did
not identify them.
This is the first fund-raising
activity of DoubleDragon, after its initial public offering in March which
raised P1.16 billion in proceeds.
DoubleDragon plans to expand its
community mall chain CityMall mostly in the underserved provincial areas around
the country.
DoubleDragon is a 50-50 joint venture
company of Sia’s Injap Investments Inc. and Honeystar Holdings Corp. of Jollibee
Foods Corp. chairman Tony Tan Caktiong.
The company, through its 66-percent
owned community shopping mall unit CityMall Commercial Centers Inc., aims to
roll out 100 CityMall stores by 2020 mostly in Visayas and Mindanao.
The 100 CityMall stores will have
total gross floor area of 700,000 square meters.
The company expects to invest P24
billion to develop the 100 CityMalls.
DoubleDragon also announced a plan to
develop a 33.4-hectare property located at the corner of Edsa and Macapagal
Avenue in Pasay City into a mixed-use development.
The project to be called Meridian Park
is envisioned to become a themed complex of buildings for business process
outsourcing companies, corporate offices, commercial complex and serviced
apartments.
It also
recently acquired the 38-story tower of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp.
in Quezon City that was foreclosed by Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
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