Ayala to issue P10B worth of 7-year bonds

Ayala Corp. has issued P10 billion worth of medium-term corporate bonds to bankroll the conglomerate’s continued expansion nationwide.

The 7-year notes were priced at 5.45 percent a year, 98 basis points above the three-day average 7-year PDST benchmark. The company said its book-building process indicated a strong demand for the bond with orders accounting for about 170 percent of the issue size.

“Ayala is raising funds for its capital requirements to enable the company to realize opportunities for expansion both through organic growth of its existing business lines as well as value-accretive acquisitions,” the company said in a disclosure.

Just recently, the company entered into an agreement with DBS Bank Ltd. to acquire part of the common shares held by DBS in Ayala-subsidiary Bank of the Philippine Islands for P25.6 billion.

“It is also pursuing a robust pipeline of projects in the power and transport infrastructure sectors as it looks to build a platform for long-term growth,” the firm said.

Ayala said it had always been a consistent and innovative issuer in the domestic capital market over the past few years, raising more than P70 billion from the capital market since 2004.

Last May, the company issued a P10-billion, 15-year bond in the market, which was the longest-listed bond placed by any Philippine corporation. Ayala said it has pioneered investment products in the local market that provided the broader investing public, particularly retail investors, with alternative investments.

Appointed as underwriters to sell the bonds to the public were BPI Capital, BDO Capital and Investments, First Metro Investments, HSBC, ING Bank, RCBC Capital, SB Capital and Standard Chartered Bank.

The company expects to list the bonds on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange System (PDEx) on November 23.

Earlier this week, Ayala announced that the Zobel family’s flagship holding firm posted a consolidated net income of P8.7 billion for the January-to-September period, or 19-percent higher than that of the same period last year.

Core net income, which excludes the impact of the accelerated depreciation from its telco unit and revaluation gains realized by its international property unit last year, reached P9.3 billion, representing a 31-percent year-on-year increase.