Ayala to raise P15B from preferreds

Conglomerate Ayala Corp. is raising P15 billion from a new offering of preferred shares this November, proceeds from which will refinance debt and cover general corporate requirements.

Based on an offering approved by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Ayala will offer at least 20 million preferred shares at P500 each, with an option to increase by another 10 million.

The preferred shares will be offered to the public by way of reissuance from Ayala’s 30 million class B preferred shares held in treasury.

The dividend rate-setting will be on Nov. 6 while the offering will run from Nov. 22 to 29.

The preferred shares will be listed on the main board of the PSE on Nov. 29 under the trading symbol “APB2R.”

In its prospectus dated Oct. 29, Ayala said proceeds from the offering would refinance outstanding credit facilities drawn for the Nov. 5, 2019 redemption of preferred shares issued in 2014 alongside “general corporate purposes.”

In the event of an oversubscription, the joint lead underwriters, with the consent of the company, reserve the right, but not the obligation, to increase the size of the offer.

The underwriters are BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., First Metro Investment Corp. and PNB Capital and Investment Corp.

The joint lead underwriters will receive an estimated fee of 0.35 percent of the gross proceeds, inclusive of amounts to be paid to the selling agents.

Ayala, the country’s oldest business house, also recently raised $400 million from a new offering of offshore perpetual bonds that fetched the cheapest fixed-for-life interest rate out of Southeast Asia.

The bonds, issued by Ayala’s wholly owned subsidiary AYC Finance Ltd., carried a fixed-for-life yield of 4.85 percent a year, the lowest-yielding fixed-for-life perpetual securities carved out of the region.

Ayala has interests in real estate, financial services, telecommunications, water, power generation, industrial technologies, infrastructure, health care and education.

Key operating units include Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom and Manila Water Co. Inc.