South Luzon Tollway Corp., the operator of South Luzon Expressway, is raising as much as P7.3 billion through a retail bond issue.
SLTC said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it planned to issue the bonds with tenors of five, seven and 10 years in May.
The company plans to use proceeds from the bond sale to partially prepay outstanding obligations. The bonds will be listed with Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.
SLTC in 2012 borrowed P11 billion from several financial institution through the issuance of floating rate corporate notes. The corporate notes to date have an outstanding balance of P7.95 billion.
The tollroad operator hired BDO Capital and Investments Corp., PNB Capital and Standard Chartered Bank as joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters and book runners for the bond offering.
The company is 80 percent owned by San Miguel Corp-led MTD Manila Expressways Inc. and 20 percent by government-run Philippine National Construction Corp.
SLTC is primarily engaged in the construction, expansion and rehabilitation of the SLEX from Alabang viaduct to Lucena. It is has a 30-year concession to operate, manage and maintain SLEX, or until February 2036.
SLTC plans to extend the reach of SLEX by completing the construction of Toll Road 4 (RT4), a new 57.6 kilometer four-leaf tollroad from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Lucena, Quezon. This will extend SLEX to around 96.5 kilometres.
TR4, which is estimated to cost P12 billion, is slated for completion in 2019.
In 2014, SLTC reported a net income of P2.43 billion, a 16-percent increase from P2.09 billion in 2013, while revenues from toll operations amounted to P4.4 billion, up five percent from P4.19 billion in 2013.