Century Properties’ P6-B bond issue gets SEC nod

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has cleared a plan by Antonio family-led Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG) to raise as much as P6 billion from the offering of debt securities within the next three years.

The first tranche will amount to as much as P3 billion in the form of five-year fixed rate bonds due 2027. The base offer is P2 billion, but there is an option to upsize this by P1 billion.

In a press statement on Wednesday, the SEC said its commission en banc had approved on Jan. 25 the registration statement filed by CPG for the debt securities program, subject to certain remaining requirements.

The bonds may be offered in one or more tranches within a period of three years.

Listing next month

CPG plans to offer the bonds comprising the first tranche at face value from Feb. 14 to 18 and list the securities on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. on Feb. 24, based on the latest timetable submitted to the SEC.

The company has engaged China Bank Capital Corp. as sole issue manager, sole lead underwriter and sole bookrunner for the offer.

About P1 billion of net proceeds from the first tranche will be used to settle maturing bonds carrying a 7.8203-percent interest rate by April 15 next year, based on the prospectus submitted to the SEC. In 2019, CPG issued these P3-billion three-year bonds to fund the rollout of affordable housing and town home projects. Since then, local interest rates have gone down to record lows, creating an opportunity for corporate borrowers like CPG to replace older and costlier debt.

Apart from partially covering refinancing requirements, about P959 million of net proceeds will be used for CPG’s capital expenditure for 2022. The budget includes funding for future horizontal affordable housing development projects in Cavite and Bataan.

If the overallotment option would be exercised, the rest of the proceeds will be used to fund general corporate requirements.

As of end-September, CPG has completed 33 projects, namely: 29 residential projects, consisting of 17,169 units and a gross floor area of 1.32 million square meters. It has also developed a retail commercial building, a medical office building and two office buildings.