Filinvest raises P7B from bond issue

Gotianun-led Filinvest Land Inc. has raised P7 billion from its latest issuance of long-term bonds, which were listed on the fixed income trading platform of Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. on Thursday.

FLI issued P5.3 billion in seven-year bonds with a coupon rate of 5.4 percent a year plus P1.7 billion worth of 10-year bonds with a coupon rate of 5.6389 percent.

The property developer’s P5-billion base offering of bonds was fully subscribed and it used the leeway to upsize the issuance by another P2 billion, bringing gross proceeds to P7 billion.

“We’re always on the growth mode,” FLI president Josephine Gotianun-Yap told reporters after the bond listing ceremony, “The year started with a fund raising by FDC (Filinvest Development Corp.) and ended with a fund-raising by FLI.”

FDC, the parent conglomerate of FLI, issued P8.8 billion worth of 10-year bonds in January of this year.

“We’re very happy that the market has been receptive to our bond issuances,” she said.

The joint issue managers and bookrunners for FLI’s latest issuance are BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp. while co-lead underwriter was EastWest Banking Corp.

Gotianun-Yap said FLI, one of the few developers with nationwide reach, was constantly on the look-out for landbanking opportunities not just within the metropolis but also outside greater Metro Manila.

Roughly 25-33 percent of FLI’s residential business comes from outside greater Metro Manila, she said.

“I think that’s a fair ratio,” Gotianun-Yap said.

FLI is likewise rapidly expanding its rental portfolio.

By 2019, FLI expects to triple its gross leasable area for office and retailing to reach 1.5 million square meters.

It was earlier reported that the Filinvest group was investing over P20 billion to build more office towers in Metro Manila and Cebu mostly catering to the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, in line with its goal of building a 700,000-square meter office portfolio as early as 2020.

Together with the portfolio of FDC, the group currently has 275,000 sqm of combined gross leasable area in its office portfolio, mostly in flagship Filinvest City in Alabang.

While the group will build more BPO offices in Alabang, it has lined up new office projects in new places like Pasay, Makati and Quezon City aside from an ongoing project in Cebu. Doris C. Dumlao