Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is returning to the bond market with a jumbo bond offering of up to P80 billion.
San Miguel said in a disclosure on the stock exchange Thursday its board approved the issuance of P60-billion worth of fixed-rate bonds with an oversubscription option of another P20 billion.
The company said it would file a registration statement on the proposed bond offering shortly with the Securities and Exchange Commission and seek permission with Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEX) to list the bonds.
The conglomerate has not finalized the terms and conditions of the bond offering and did not the disclosure the use of proceeds.
It was only last March when
San Miguel in March raised P30 billion from issuance of five-year and seven-year, fixed-rate bonds, which carry a coupon rate of 5.2704 percent and 5.8434 percent, respectively.
If plans pushes through, San Miguel’s new bond offering will be the biggest be listed in PDEX.
BDO Unibank Inc.’s P52.7-billion ASEAN Sustainability Bonds issued January this year is currently the largest corporate bond offering listed on PDEX.
San Miguel is constructing several big-ticket infrastructure projects, including the P740-billion New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, the Mass Railway Transit 7 from San Jose del Monte, Bulacan to North Avenue, Quezon City, and the South Luzon Expressway TR4 project, which will extend the SLEX from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Lucena, Quezon province.
Despite rising interest rates, corporates are flocking the bond market to raise funds in order to finance expansion plans.
Year-to-date new bond listings have raised P371 billion. Given the current pipeline, total bond listings could surpass the previous record of P388 billion set in 2020.
Aside from BDO, other companies that raised capital through the bond market include SM Prime Holdings Inc. ( P30 billion), Bank of the Philippine Islands (P27 billion), SM Investments Corp (P15 billion), Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (P 14.75 billion), Robinsons Land Corp. (P15 billion) and Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions Inc. (P10 billion).
