SM plans up to P20B bond float this year

LEADING conglomerate SM Investments Corp. plans to launch as much as P20 billion in retail bond offering within the year to boost fresh funds for expansion.

This is part of a P50-billion three-year bond offering program which the board of the Sy family-led conglomerate approved on Wednesday.

The board approved a fixed rate bond program amounting to P50 billion under a three-year shelf registration facility of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“Initial issuance under this program is expected later this year in the amount of P15 billion with an oversubscription option of up to P5 billion,” SMIC said in a press statement.

The board also authorized management to negotiate and finalize the terms and conditions, including pricing, tenor and any increase in issuance amount.

The SEC’s shelf registration mechanism allows an issuer like SMIC to register and sell under the same prospectus and other regulatory filing requirements a certain volume of securities that the issuer does not intend to use up right away.  Its property arm SM Prime, for instance, has a three-year window to use up the shelf registration of up to P60 billion in bond offering.