SM Prime raises P15B from retail bond offer

Property giant SM Prime Holdings has raised P15 billion from a new public retail bond offering that was timely completed just before the metropolis was locked down to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, SM Prime said it had issued on March 25 a total of P15 billion worth of five- and seven-year bonds with interest rates of 4.8643 percent and 5.0583 percent a year, respectively.

SM Prime offered the bonds to the public on March 2-13, raising fresh funds before the government put Metro Manila, and later on the whole of Luzon, under stringent quarantine due to the rising cases of COVID-19 infection.

The Sy family-led property company completed the base offer of P15 billion but did not exercise its option to upsize by another P5 billion.

The joint issue managers were BDO Capital and Investment Corp. and China Bank Capital Corp., which also acted as joint lead underwriters and joint bookrunners together with BPI Capital Corp., EastWest Banking Corp., First Metro Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp.

This series of SM Prime bonds due in 2025 and 2027 is the firm’s seventh offering of peso-denominated retail bonds to the public, all of which had been rated triple-A by credit watchdog Philippine Rating Services Corp. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla