DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | May 01, 2024

Published 19 Apr, 2013 12:17pm

San Miguel raises $800 mln in Philippines' largest corporate bond issue

MANILA: San Miguel Corp, Philippines' most diversified conglomerate, has raised $800 million via a 10-year bond issue, the largest ever dollar-denominated overseas issue by a private local firm.

Demand was strong following a roadshow in Singapore and Hong Kong with a final order book size of more than $4.5 billion across 250 accounts, representing an oversubscription rate of 5.6 times, San Miguel said on Friday.

San Miguel priced the paper at 4.875 per cent against an initial guidance of around 5.125 per cent.

Asian investors accounted for 69 per cent of the order book, followed by Europeans with 28 per cent, while US offshore investors took the remaining 3 per cent, San Miguel said in a statement.

The company said it would use the proceeds to repay a bridge facility arranged by Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. ANZ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and DBS Bank Ltd.

Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered were the book runners for the transaction. The issue was San Miguel's inaugural drawdown of its newly established $2 billion medium-term note programme. The company is also trying to raise $1.3 billion from a five-year bullet term loan.

San Miguel has businesses spanning beverages, food and packaging, power generation, oil refining, mining, airline and toll roads. Its operations outside the Philippines extend to China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.

On Monday, it emerged as the winning bidder for a 15.5 billion Philippine peso ($376.21 million) Manila airport expressway after offering to pay the government a 70 per cent premium for the building rights.

Read Comments

Audio leaks case: IHC's Justice Babar Sattar dismisses pleas seeking his recusal Next Story