Conglomerate Ayala Corp. said Friday it raised P10 billion from the issuance of fixed-rate bonds that were more than 10-times oversubscribed.
Ayala Corp. president and chief executive Fernando Zobel de Ayala said during the virtual listing ceremony led by Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. that the successful issuance of the first tranche of the company’s P30-billion debt securities program would help strengthen and recalibrate the group’s diverse portfolio and reposition the company for a post-pandemic economic recovery.
“The Ayala Group has always been and continues to be an active participant of the capital markets,” said Zobel de Ayala.
“During this [health] crisis, Ayala Corp., Ayala Land, BPI, Globe, Manila Water and AC Energy raised over P190 billion in combined proceeds from the domestic and international capital markets to allow us to take advantage of opportunities and further solidify our balance sheet during these challenging times,” he said.
The oversubscription of the offering allowed the conglomerate to price the bonds at the lowest end of the marketing range, carrying a coupon of 3.0260 percent and 3.7874 percent for the 3-year and 5-year tenors, respectively.
The offering is also the largest five-year allocation among dual tranche offers during the pandemic, a reflection of the market’s confidence in Ayala’s long-term stability and credit strength.
“We are delighted to see that investor interest remained high, with demand from both retail and institutional investors reaching over P60 billion,” Zobel de Ayala said.
He lauded the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PDS Group for launching the country’s first Electronic Securities Issue Portal called e-SIP, which would eliminate voluminous paper-based submissions and expand a company’s reach by selling securities online.
Ayala Corp. and property arm Ayala Land Inc. were the first companies to utilize the e-SIP system.
PDS president and chief executive Antonio Nakpil commended the Ayala Gfor being the pioneer users of the e-SIP portal and for their continued support to local capital markets.
“It is fitting that the Ayala Group, led by Ayala Corp.—the longest-standing supporters, constructive contributors and most active group of issuer participants of the domestic capital market—featured prominently to bookend this month, a milestone in the digitalization timeline for the corporate bond primary market,” Nakpil said.