MANILA, Philippines?Port Operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. plans to debut in the overseas bond market in the next few days with an offering of as much as $250 million worth of 10-year bonds and become the first non-bank Philippine corporate issuer to brave the overseas bond market after recent Greece-related market jitters this year.
ICTSI has mandated foreign banks HSBC and JP Morgan to arrange its maiden overseas debut and has started the fund-raising with an investor briefing in Manila last Friday, industry sources familiar with the offering said.
Top officials and bank arrangers are set to hold another roadshow in Hong Kong today and in Singapore tomorrow.
The issue had been warmly received by the market such that it was oversubscribed during the Manila leg of the roadshow. ICTSI is expected to issue the bonds shortly after the Asian roadshow or as early as this week.
Proceeds from the bond issue will be used to fund the construction of existing and new terminals and pay debt.
ICTSI will make its overseas bond foray as an unrated issuer. Some corporate issuers do not seek credit ratings at all for a change to delink the pricing of their issuance from the sovereign issuers of their country of domicile.
The company does not intend to register the new securities in the United States or the Philippines. Instead, ICTSI plans to list the bonds on the Singapore Securities Trading Ltd.
The port operator, which is led by businessman Enrique Razon Jr., was incorporated in 1987 to operate, manage and develop the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), which handles international container cargo at the Port of Manila.
The principal business of ICTSI is the management, operation and development of container terminals. ICTSI and its subsidiaries provide cargo handling and related services to container, storage facilities and services, and roll-on roll-off (Ro-Ro) and anchorage services to noncontainerized cargo or general cargo.
ICTSI and its subsidiaries also operates in Brazil, Poland, Madagascar, Japan, Indonesia, Syria, China, Ecuador, Colombia, Georgia, Brunei and Argentina. It manages the Pulau Muara Container Terminal in Brunei, Port of La Plata in Argentina, Port of Batumi in Georgia, Port of Buenaventura in Colombia, Port of Guayaquil in Ecuador, Yantai Port in Shandong Province, China, Tartous Container Terminal in Syria, and the Makassar Port Container Terminal in Indonesia.
Aside from operating the MICT, it also runs the Mindanao Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental, the Makar Wharf in General Santos, the Cubi Point at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales, and Sasa International Port in Davao City. Citing a decline in global trade and rising costs, ICSTI said last week that its profit fell 15 percent to $54.9 million in 2009 from a year ago.
