DoubleDragon begins sale of ‘very last’ 8% bonds

After securing the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission, DoubleDragon Corp. has started its P10-billion bond offer as it banks on declining interest rates to entice investors.

The property venture of tycoons Edgar Sia II and Tony Tan Caktiong began offering on Monday the retail bonds, which would mature in five and a half years.

DoubleDragon said they “expected [this] to be the very last 8-percent yield peso retail bond offering … over the long term.”

“We are glad to tap the peso retail bond market again to capture an even wider stakeholder base into DoubleDragon’s ecosystem,” Sia, DoubleDragon chair, said in a statement.

The offer period will run until Nov. 20, with listing on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. scheduled on Nov. 25.

A minimum P50,000 investment is required, according to DoubleDragon.

Land Bank of the Philippines, RCBC Capital Corp. and Unicapital Inc. were tapped as joint issue managers, lead underwriters and bookrunners for the offer. They are also the selling agents, along with EastWest Bank.

This is the second time this year that DoubleDragon tapped the debt market to raise capital following its P10-billion offer in July, which promised a yield of 8.008 percent per annum.

This comes after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas slashed interest rates by 50 basis points to 6 percent, making fixed-income securities like bonds more attractive due to higher yields. —Meg J. Adonis