Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. of billionaire Manuel Villar Jr. obtained a top credit rating for its planned issuance of up to P10 billion in fixed-rate bonds to fund expansion plans.
Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) assigned a credit rating of PRS Aaa with a stable outlook on Vista Land’s bonds offering scheduled next month.
PRS Aaa is the highest credit rating on PhilRatings’ long-term issue credit rating scale. Obligations rated PRS Aaa are of the highest quality with minimal credit risk.
PhilRatings in assigning the rating said it considered Vista Land’s well-diversified portfolio, growing profitability with strong margins and its ability to generate cash flows from operations.
“PhilRatings based its assessment on available information and projections at the time that the rating review was performed. PhilRatings shall continuously monitor developments relating to VLL, and may change the rating and outlook at any time, should circumstances warrant a change,” it said.
Vista Land plans to use the proceeds from the bond offering to partially fund the construction and completion of various malls, redevelopment of existing ones, construction of condominium projects and general corporate purposes.
Of the P10 billion bonds, P5 billion will be issued as the last tranche of the P20-billion shelf program of the company while another P5 billion out of the new shelf bond program.
The company in October filed a new P30-billion bond shelf registration program with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The property firm tapped China Bank Capital, PNB Capital, and SB Capital as underwriters of the first tranche of the bond offering.
Vista Land reported a 12-percent increase in net income to P9 billion in the first nine months of the year from P8.1 billion year-on-year, boosted by higher residential and rental revenues.
Nine-month consolidated revenues climbed 9.4 percent on-year to P34.35 billion from P31.39 billion.
The company’s projects as of September 30, 2019 were distributed in 147 cities and municipalities in 49 provinces throughout the Philippines.