The Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp., the operator of the country’s bond market, said it expects total bond listings this year to reach P100 billion, as companies rush to raise funds ahead of the possible US interest rate hike.
PDEx president and chief operating officer Cesar Crisol said in an interview at the sidelines of Ayala Land Inc.’s P7-billion retail bond offering that total bond listings amounted to P71.69 billion as of Oct. 7.
“Companies are rushing to issue bonds to take advantage of the current low-interest rate environment,” Crisol said.
Crisol said three more listings were expected before the end of the year, including Ayala Land’s P3-billion Homestarter Bonds, Petron Corp.’s P20-billion five and seven-year fixed-rate bonds and SM Investments Corp.’s P20-billion seven-year bonds.
Several banks are also expected to issue long-term negotiable certificate of deposits.
Petron’s and SM Investments’ bond offerings have yet to be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Crisol said despite the pending US rate hike, he expected companies to continue to tap the debt market to finance expansion plans.
Ayala Land’s P7-billion bond offering is the company’s third bond issuance in 2016. The property giant issued P8-billion bonds due 2026 in March. The following month, it also raised P7 billion due 2025.
Ayala Land head of debt management Ricardo Ulysses Tabije said demand for the latest P7 billion offering was 1.2 times oversubscribed.
Aside from Ayala Land, six companies issued bonds this year. These were Metrobank (P8.65 billion LTNCDs), SM Prime Holdings Inc. (P10 billion due 2026), SMC Global Power Holdings Inc. (P15 billion due 2021, 2023 and 2026), Ayala Corp. (P10 billion due 2023), SL Agritech Corp. (P1 billion short-term commercial papers) and Phoenix Petroleum (P3.5 billion short term commercial papers).