SEC oks Ayala’s P20B fund-raising

THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission has approved a P20 billion retail bond offering planned by conglomerate Ayala Corp. under a shelf registration program.

The first tranche of the offering of fixed rate bonds is worth around P10 billion due 2023, based on a document from the SEC.

Indicative interest rate on the seven-year bonds is between 3.9 percent and 4.15 percent.

Net proceeds from the first tranche will be used to refinance AC’s peso-denominated debt obligations.

Mandated as joint lead underwriters for this offering are: BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp. BDO is the sole issue manager.

Shelf registration allows an issuer to register and sell under the same prospectus and other regulatory filing requirements a certain volume of securities that the issuer does not intend to use up right away. Under the latest implementing rules and regulations for the Securities Regulation Code approved by the SEC, securities to be issued in tranches may be registered for an offering to be made on a continuous or delayed basis for a period not exceeding three years./rga