8990 to issue P5-B bonds

MANILA, Philippines - Mass Housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. plans to offer as much as P5 billion worth of securitized bonds later this year, a company official said.

In a briefing Tuesday, 8990 president and CEO Januario Jesus Atencio said the company is looking to issue the bonds in the third quarter.

“It’s going to be the first private sector led securitization effort ever in the history of housing finance,” Atencio said.

On the public sector front, the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. previously offered securitized bonds in the form of its Bahay Bonds program.

Atencio said the bonds would make housing finance more flexible.

“We would have been the pioneer in opening up a new avenue for housing finance which never before existed,” Atencio said.

“Making housing finance more flexible not only to the users of capital like developers, but also to it’s intended beneficiaries which are the mortgages or the asset-backed securities or contracts of the buyers,” he added.

Last year, 8990 tapped China Bank Capital Corp., the investment banking arm of Sy-led China Bank Corp., to underwrite the securitization of contracts to sell (CTS) receivables worth up to P5 billion.

Atencio said the bonds form part of the P10 billion shelf registration program announced last year.

Company chairman Mariano Martinez Jr. disclosed last November that the proceeds of the securitization and preferred share issuance would be used to pay off the liabilities incurred by the CTS receivables.