By Jenniffer B. Austria | Apr. 29,
2014 at 12:01am [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
Conglomerate SM Investments Corp. on
Monday set interest rates for the planned P15-billion bond sale at 5.2958
percent for the seven-year bonds and 5.6125 percent for the 10-year bonds.
SM Investments said in a disclosure to
the stock exchange the company would issue a total of P10 billion, with an
option to issue an additional amount of up to P5 billion.
The bonds are scheduled to be offered
to public investors from April 30 to May 2 while the issue date will be on May
19.
BDO Capital & Investments Corp. is
the issue manager and joint lead underwriter together with BPI Capital Corp.,
China Banking Corp. and First Metro Investments Corp.
“Proceeds of the bond sale shall be
utilized by SM to refinance existing debt, including its series A retail bonds
due 2014, to finance retention payments for the completed construction of a
commercial buildings at SM Arena and to finance to construction of a warehouse
building on its Asiana property in Parañaque City,” SM Investments said.
The bonds earlier received a PRS Aaa
rating from Philippine Rating Services Corp., indicating that such obligations
are of the highest quality with minimal credit risk and that the issuing
company’s capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligations is
extremely strong.
SM Investments earmarked P80 billion
in capital expenditures this year, up 23 percent from P65 billion in 2012,
primarily to fund expansion of property, retail and banking businesses.
It said at least P70 billion would be
spent by property arm SM Prime Holdings Inc., P5 billion to P6 billion for the
retail expansion and the remaining P4 billion to P5 billion for banking
subsidiaries BDO Unibank and China Banking Corp.
SM Investments posted an 11-percent
increase in net income to P27.45 billion in 2013 from P24.67 billion in 2012,
on strong earnings from banking, retail, mall and real estate businesses.
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