ALI completes P10B bond float

Virtual listing of ALI’s P10B bonds at PDEx. From left to right: Bernard Vincent O. Dy, ALI President & CEO; Augusto D. Bengzon, ALI CFO, Chief Compliance Officer and Treasurer; Eduardo V. Francisco, BDO Capital Corporation President; Antonino A. Nakpil, PDEX President & COO; Ephyro Luis B. Amatong, SEC Commissioner; Rhoda A. Huang, BPI Capital Corporation President; Ma. Theresa B. Ravalo, PDTC President & COO; and Ryan Martin L. Tapia, China Banking Capital Corporation President.

Property giant Ayala Land Inc. has completed P10 billion worth of fresh fund-raising from the issuance of local bonds, becoming the first non-bank entity to tap the local bond market since the Philippines was subjected to strict lockdown protocols in mid-March.

ALI’s two-year fixed rate bonds due 2022, which carried a coupon rate of 3 percent per annum, were listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation (PDEx) on Friday.

The bond offer was strongly received and was oversubscribed by 1.75 times the base offer, enabling ALI to increase the issue size from P6 billion to a total of P10 billion.

“We are pleased with the reception for our two-year bond issuance. Our primary objective during the last three months was to ensure that we preserve value for Ayala Land and maintain financial sustainability. It was therefore imperative that we ensure that we have more than adequate liquidity to meet our obligations and that we manage our cost of funding during this period. We hope that our success will spur investor confidence and pave the way for the reopening of the local debt capital market,” ALI president and chief executive officer Bernard Vincent Dy said in a press statement on Monday.
 
“We are confident that as the economy continues to reopen, business will continue to pick up and we hope to resume our expansion program within the next few months,” he added.

With local benchmark interest rates approaching historical lows and the current system liquidity nearly reaching twice the level in 2019, ALI saw an opportunity to lower borrowing costs while lengthening debt maturity profile.

BPI Capital Corp., BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and Chinabank Capital Corp. were the joint lead underwriters for the issuance while PNB and Investment Corporation and SB Capital Investment Corporation acted as co-lead managers.