AEV aims to raise P24B via bond offering

Conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures has started a P24-billion fund-raising through a public offering of fixed rate bonds.

Following its receipt of registration approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission, AEV announced an offering of bonds in tenors of five years/three months, seven years and 12 years through July 31.

AEV obtained approval to offer as much as P25 billion but noted in a disclosure on Tuesday that P24 billion worth of bonds would be issued this year while the remaining P1 billion would be lodged under a shelf registration and might be issued in tranches in the future.

The five-year and three-month bond offer was priced to yield 4.4722 percent per annum while the seven-year tenor was priced at 5.0056 percent per annum. The 12-year tenor was priced to yield 6.0169 percent per annum.

The bonds earlier received the highest possible rating of “PRS Aaa” from local credit watcher Philippine Rating Services Corp.

AEV engaged BPI Capital Corp. as the issue manager, BPI Asset Management and Trust Group as the trustee and the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp. (PDTC) as the registrar of the bonds. BPI Capital and First Metro Investment Corp. are the joint lead underwriters for the transaction.

BDO Capital and Investment Corp., China Banking Corp. and Development Bank of the Philippines are the co-lead underwriters while Land Bank of the Philippines, RCBC Capital Corp. and United Coconut Planters Bank were also appointed participating underwriters.

Based on its earlier prospectus, the minimum investment was set at P50,000 while additional investments would be in increments of P10,000.

The prospectus also showed that proceeds from the bond float would be used to pay AEV’s long-term debt, to infuse fresh equity into Aboitiz Land, Apo Agus Infrastructure Inc. (P2.1 billion) and AseaGas (P311 million).