VMC prepays debt

MANILA – The country’s largest sugar mill Victorias Milling Co. has agreed to retire ahead of maturity about P842 million worth of restructured debts as part of continuing efforts to clean up its balance sheet and trim debt servicing expenses.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, VMC said its board had approved to pre-pay at end-May restructured loans in the amount of about P709.45 million plus a US dollar- denominated debt worth about $3.24 million (P132.84 million at 41:$1).

The disclosure said this would leave about P2.7 billion in VMC’s books, inclusive of interest as of June 1.

These debts were earlier restructured by VMC under its corporate rehabilitation plan through 2018.

VMC would have wanted to restructure some of its debts anew because interest rates have gone down to record-low levels. However, creditors were lukewarm to another restructuring.

However, debt prepayment is within the rehabilitation framework and would not have to rely on consent from creditors and the Securities and Exchange Commission, VMC chair Wilson Young said in a text message.

“Estimated (level of) savings is about P80 million a year in interest costs plus administrative ease as a result,” he said.