GT Capital taps debt market to raise P9B

MANILA, Philippines—GT Capital Holdings of the Ty family plans to raise P9 billion in fresh funds for expansion through the domestic debt market.

The company on Thursday said it had mandated First Metro Investment Corp. to help it raise long-term debt financing for general corporate purposes.

“GTCap has decided to tap the domestic debt capital market to access the current record-low interest rates and to optimize the company’s under-leveraged position,” GT Cap senior vice president and chief financial officer Francis Suarez said in a statement.

The firm plans to complete the debt issue early next year.

In a separate statement, GT Capital reported a 107-percent jump in January-September net profit to P5.3 billion. Excluding non-recurring items, nine-month core net income went up by 51 percent to P3.9 billion.

Consolidated revenue in the first nine months soared by 211 percent to P16.7 billion year on year, driven by the expansion of core businesses and the consolidation of Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC) earlier this year, improved net income from associates, and a non-recurring gain of P1.4 billion realized by property development unit Federal Land Inc.

GT Cap, which debuted on the PSE in April this year, has five companies: Federal Land, GBPC, Toyota Motor Philippines Corp., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) and Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp. (AXA Philippines).

Metrobank posted a 15-percent growth in its consolidated nine-month net income to P10.2 billion while Federal Land chalked up P1.9 billion, 474 percent higher than the level a year ago.

GBPC improved its net income for the period by 89 percent year on year to P2.1 billion as a result of the full-year operations of its newly commissioned power plants in Cebu and Panay.—Doris C. Dumlao