D&L’s P5-B bond debut OK’d

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a plan of plastic and food ingredients manufacturer D&L Industries Inc. to raise as much as P5 billion from its maiden retail offering of fixed-rate bonds.

In its meeting on Thursday, the SEC cleared the registration statement of D&L for up to P3 billion in series A bonds due 2024 and series B bonds due 2026, with an oversubscription option of up to P2 billion.Proceeds from the offering will partly finance the expansion of D&L’s plant in Batangas and the partial repayment of its bridge loans.

The bonds will be offered at face value, and will be listed and traded on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx).

The offer is scheduled for Sept. 1 to 6, while listing on the PDEx is slated for Sept. 10.

D&L tapped China Bank Capital Corp. as the sole issue manager, lead underwriter, and sole bookrunner for the offer.The company’s Batangas expansion sits on a 26-hectare property in First Industrial Township-Special Economic Zone. At the earliest, commercial operations will start on May 2022.

D&L has so far spent about P4.5 billion for the project. Remaining capital outlays to be spent this year and in 2022 would be at about P3.5 billion.

Once completed, the new plant is expected to be instrumental to the company’s future growth, in line with plans to develop more high value-added coconut-based products and penetrate new international markets.

The new facility will mainly cater to D&L’s growing export business in the food and oleochemicals segment. It will add the capability to manufacture downstream packaging, thus allowing the company to capture a bigger part of the production chain.