Aboitiz Power to issue 17- B worth of bonds

Listed firm Aboitiz Power Corporation will be issuing next month the third tranche of its pesodenominated fixed rate retail bonds worth 17.0 billion with provision for an oversubscription of 15.0 billion.

The company announced that the offer period will start September 30 and will wind up on October 4 this year; while the issue date is on October 14.

The targeted bond issuance is part of the 130-billion fixed rate bonds that are under its shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The offer and sale of the third tranche was approved last September 27.

The Aboitiz firm had engaged BDO Capital & Investment Corporation and First Metro Investment Corporation (FMIC) as joint issue managers; while BDO Capital, FMIC, China Bank Capital Corporation, SB Capital & Investment Corporation and PNB Capital & Investment Corporation as joint bookrunners and joint lead underwriters.

Additionally, the company tapped BDO Unibank – Trust and Investments Group as trustee and the Philippine Deposit & Trust Company as the registrar of the bond issue.

As stipulated in the SEC approval, the Series D bond issuance will carry an interest rate of 5.2757% per annum and it will be due on December 2026.

The Aboitiz firm issued last year the Series B and C of its fixed rate bonds that are due on 2024 and 2028, respectively. The company cornered 110.2-billion proceeds from that offer.

It was also in July last year when Aboitiz Power first made its 10-year bond issue of P3.0 billion – the proceeds of which had been intended mainly for equity infusion into its GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co, its tie-up with the Ayala group wherein it already acquired majority shareholdings.

For this next round of bond issuance, the company indicated that it will be utilizing the proceeds “to fund potential acquisitions, future investments and to refinance existing debt.”

Prior to this fresh batch of offer, the aggregate face amount of bonds already listed by the company hovers at 158.2 billion, accounting for roughly 6.0 percent of the total face amount of 1966billion corporate bonds that had been listed with PDEx.

The Aboitiz group is still continuously on the lookout for opportunistic investment expansion in the Philippines; while also pursuing prospects for growth offshore. The initial investment it made outside the Philippines was a wind power project in Vietnam.