ALI eyes offering of P21B in long-term retail bonds

Property giant Ayala Land Inc. plans to offer as much as P21 billion in long-term domestic retail bonds, to raise fresh funds for “general” corporate purposes.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, ALI said its board had approved the issuance of the said corporate bonds which would be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The proposed bonds will have a tenor of seven, 10, 20 or 25 years.

The bonds will be sold through a general public offering, the company said in the disclosure.

“We will still seek the SEC approval for our planned bond issuance, so the issue date will likely be sometime in the third quarter,” said ALI chief finance officer Jaime Ysmael.

“The bonds will be issued in one tranche but will have multiple tenors  as we intend to manage the maturity profile of our debt.”

ALI also disclosed that its board had approved the incorporation of a wholly owned subsidiary, Verde Golf Development Corp., which will oversee the operations of Southvale Golf Course.

The property giant has budgeted P65.7 billion for capital spending this year. Of the amount, P10.3 billion had been disbursed in the first quarter for residential development, land acquisition, shopping centers, hotels and resorts, office property development and other land development activities.

In May, ALI raised about $300 million from a fresh equity deal, taking advantage of the buoyant stock market to boost funds for expansion.

In the first quarter, ALI grew its net profit by 30 percent year-on-year to P2.76 billion,  as all business lines contributed higher earnings.

Consolidated revenue in the first quarter reached P18.53 billion, 38 percent higher than the P13.39 billion posted in the same period last year.

Originally posted at 05:13 pm | Wednesday, June 19, 2013