SM Prime plans P10B bond offer

PROPERTY giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. plans to raise as much as P10 billion from a new offering of fixed rate bonds, boosting funding for its expansion program.

This is part of a P60 billion fund-raising through a shelf registration program approved by SMPH’s board for the next three years, the Sy family-led property company said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

SMPH said its board had approved the issuance of up to P5 billion in fixed rate retail bonds with a maturity of 10 years. There will be an oversubscription option of up to P5 billion.

The board also authorized the management to negotiate and finalize the terms and conditions, including pricing, tenor and any increase in issuance amount as well as execute any and all documents necessary to implement the retail bond issue.

Shelf registration allows an issuer to register and sell under the same prospectus and other regulatory filing requirements a certain volume of securities that the issuer does not intend to use up right away. The Securities and Exchange Commission gives the issuer a three-year window to use up the shelf registration.