Vista Land unit raises $300M from 7-year debt offer

A UNIT of Villar-led property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes has raised $300 million from the sale of seven-year corporate notes priced at 7.375 per annum.

This is the first offering of seven-year tenor notes by the company through VLL International Inc. under its $1-billion debut medium term note program, the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

“Proceeds from the offering will primarily be used for refinancing, general working capital
purposes and other general corporate purposes,” the disclosure said.

The unsecured notes due 2022 were issued as part of the company’s liability management exercise designed primarily to extend its US dollar notes due 2018 and 2019, the disclosure said.

Early last week, the company offered to buy back its $100 million notes due 2018 and US$350 million notes due 2019. At the end of the tender offer period, about $206.7 million notes were tendered by noteholders and accepted.

Order book for the offering was estimated at $1 billion, the largest ever posted by the company in any of its capital market offer. VLL said this was reflective of its “growing brand name within the Philippines credit space.”

Most of the allocation, however, went to investors who had participated in the tender offer, the company said.

“The company’s growing liability management expertise is also likely to be making investors more comfortable with its underlying creditworthiness,” the company said.

In terms of investor distribution, banks gobbled up about 52 percent of the issuance while fund managers accounted for 40 percent. The remaining 8 percent was taken up by private banks (held for high-networth investors).

By geography, Asia took up 91 percent of the issuance while Europe took up 9 percent.

“Asian offshore participation was sizeable with combined allocations of 51 percent, achieving the company’s objectives of diversifying away from its onshore investor base,” the company said.

HSBC acted as the sole structuring advisor. HSBC and DBS Bank Ltd. were also joint dealer managers on the tender offer while BDO Capital & Investment Corp. was the domestic dealer manager.

DBS Bank Ltd. and HSBC acted as joint global coordinators, joint lead managers and joint
bookrunners for the new notes issuance while BDO Capital and China Banking Corp. acted as joint domestic lead managers.

VLL has built around 300,000 homes in 86 local cities and municipalities in 35 provinces around the country, making it a leading homebuilder in the Philippines.