Petron to offer $500M in notes /

Proceeds to be used mainly for repayment of obligations

Petron Corp. is offering a total of $500 million in perpetual notes, the proceeds from which will be used by the oil refiner mainly to repay its debt.

The San Miguel group subsidiary yesterday said the undated unsubordinated capital securities were expected to be issued next week, Jan. 18.

“The net proceeds from the issue of the securities, which will be about $498 million (after the deduction of commissions), will be used for the repurchase, refinancing and/or redemption of undated subordinated capital securities, the repayment of indebtedness and for general cor- porate purposes, including capital expenditures,” Petron said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Petron said the notes would be available at face value and would carry an interest of 2.5 percent yearly.

The company announced the planned issuance last week, when Petron said it was offering only up to $350 million, representing part of the principal amount of its undated unsubordinated capital securities amounting to a total of $750 million.

In its offering circular describing its overall status, Petron said it had executed last Dec. 29 a P10-billion bilateral facility to fund its requirements for permanent working capital.

Before that, last Oct. 10, Petron drew $400 million from its $1-billion loan facility, which the company used to fully pay its P20-billion global peso notes that matured the following month on Nov. 10.

Petron said that last October, it had filed a complaint in the Regional Trial Court of Mandaluyong City against Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) in relation to the state firm’s “unilateral disregard and fundamental breach of the renewal clauses of certain lease agreements.”

These various agreements cover parcels of land where Petron’s refinery in Bataan as well as 23 bulk plants and 66 services stations are located.