Ayala seeks SEC nod to issue P20-B bonds

The country’s oldest business house Ayala Corp. is seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to P20 billion from a bond offering under a shelf registration program.

The first tranche of the offering is an issuance of P10 billion in bonds due 2023, based on AC’s preliminary prospectus dated May 11.

BDO Capital and Investment Corp. was mandated as the issue manager while joint lead underwriters included BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp.

The succeeding tranches of the bond program are proposed to be issued under a shelf registration program, which allows the issuer to use the same prospectus for succeeding issuances of securities for a period not exceeding three years.

The bonds are proposed to be listed on the local fixed income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. These will be issued in denominations of P50,000 each as a minimum and in multiples of P10,000 thereafter. Proceeds will be used by AC to refinance the company’s peso-denominated obligations with early redemption options.

Prior to the maturity date, AC has the right but not the obligation to redeem all of the bonds. This call option may be exercised at the issuer’s sole discretion after 5.5 years.

For this year, AC has set a record-high group-wide capital spending budget of P174 billion to fund new power generation and property projects and boost telecommunication business. The amount is bigger than the P130-billion actual group spending last year.

The Ayala group now has about 600 megawatts of attributable capacity across conventional and renewable platforms. Including other existing projects in the pipeline, the target level of 1,000-MW capacity will likely be operational by 2019.