VLL unit raises $300M via notes offering

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

These are the first seven-year tenor notes issued by the company through VLL International Inc. under its $1-billion debut medium term note program, the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

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

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, it added.

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

Order book for the offering was estimated at $1 billion, the largest ever posted by the company in any of its debt offering. 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.

In terms of investor distribution, banks cornered about 52 percent of the issuance while fund managers got 40 percent. The remaining 8 percent was taken up by private banks (held for high net worth individuals).

By geography, Asia took up 91 percent of the issuance while Europe got 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 joint dealer managers on the tender offer while BDO Capital & Investment Corp. was the domestic dealer manager. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla