SMC rolls out P20B bond offer

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has launched a new offering of retail bonds worth as much as P20 billion, raising fresh funds to refinance debt and fund massive capital outlays.

SMC’s fixed rate bond offering consists of five-year bonds priced to yield 4.8243 percent per annum, seven-year bonds priced to yield 5.2840 per annum and 10-year bonds yielding 5.7613 percent per annum, the conglomerate disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The offer period started on Tuesday and will run until Feb. 20 this year.

The joint lead underwriters and bookrunners are BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., ING Bank NV, RCBC Capital Corp., SB Capital Corp. and Standard Chartered Bank. SMC’s banking arm Bank of Commerce is a selling agent.

This offering is part of a P60-billion bond offering program approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the shelf registration program allowed by the SEC, securities to be issued in tranches may be registered for an offering to be made on a continuous or delayed basis for a period not exceeding three years. The issuer is allowed to use the same prospectus for various tranches of securities offering under such mechanism.