VLL eyes more HomeBuilder bonds

Villar-led Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc. (VLL) is mulling over the issuance of a second tranche of its HomeBuilder bonds this year mainly to ramp up branding and marketing initiatives.

“We had a very good response to our first tranche and we’re probably going to issue another, maybe bigger tranche. We have done a dollar bond and this peso retail bond, so I think from a capital expenditures perspective, we’re more than covered for this year. But our HomeBuilder bonds are there not only for financing purposes but also for marketing and branding, so we might launch it this year,” VLL president and chief executive Manuel Paolo A. Villar told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of the company’s P5-billion local bond market offering on Friday.

In 2012, VLL issued P2.5 billion in HomeBuilder bonds with an initial tranche of P500.4 million due 2015, which is extendible to 2017 with a corresponding increase in amount of up to P834 million.

Last month, the property developer said it had offered $225 million in five-year notes due 2019 in the offshore debt market through wholly owned subsidiary VLL International Inc.

Last Friday, VLL listed with the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx) 5.6542-percent five-and-a-half-year bonds due 2019 and 5.9437-percent seven-year bonds due 2021.

The listed issue amounts are P4.33 billion and P673.73 million, respectively, for the five-and-a-half-year and seven-year fixed-rate bonds.

The proceeds of this bond issue would be spent on VLL’s commercial development projects, Villar said.

“We plan to spend about P3 billion on commercial development in a variety of areas, especially our Evia project in southern Metro Manila along Daang Hari Road and, of course, Lakefront in Sucat. Those projects will receive a large portion of [the bond proceeds],” he said.

Part of the capital being raised would be allocated for building small commercial centers near VLL’s subdivision projects to house retail tenants catering to the end-user market, Villar added.

The executive said the company’s performance in the first quarter was “pretty solid,” adding that VLL was on track to hit its targets of possible double-digit growth in revenues and net income this year.