SMC unit taps 3 banks for $500-million bond issue

MANILA, Philippines - Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said yesterday that its wholly-owned power unit has tapped three banks as joint bookrunners and lead managers for a five-year dollar bond issue amounting to at least $500 million.

In a filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange, the conglomerate said SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. has mandated ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.), HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead managers for a proposed US dollar benchmark bond issue.

SMC Global Power has applied to list the bond issue with the Singapore Exchange Securities Ltd. No offering of securities will be made in the US, Philippines or in any other jurisdiction where such offering is restricted or prohibited, SMC said.

Proceeds from the bond issue will be used to finance investments in power-related assets, fund payments or prepayments of obligations to state privatization agency Power Sector Assets & Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), and for general corporate needs.

SMC Global Power is seeking to double its existing power generating capacity to 6,000 megawatts in the next five years with the addition of 3,000 MW of new capacity.

The company owns three coal mining assets in Mindanao – Daguma, Bonanza and Sultan—which could produce 1,200 MW of electricity.

SMC also owns 10.1 percent of Australia’s Indophil Resources NL, which controls a third of the $5.2-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in Mindanao. The much-coveted Tampakan mine is touted as Southeast Asia’s richest untapped copper and gold deposit.

Indophil owns 37.5 percent of Sagittarius Mines Inc., the local company working on the Tampakan project in South Cotabato. Sagittarius is controlled by London-based global mining giant Xstrata Plc.

SMC Global Power is also eyeing power generating assets to be auctioned off by PSALM.

Among the power assets to be sold by the government are the 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant, Caliraya-Botokan-Kalayaan hydropower plants,Sucat thermal power plant and the Agus and Pulangui power plants.

 The San Miguel Group is already the country’s biggest player in the power generation sector with a production capacity of over 3,300 MW consisting of the 1,200-MW Sual coal-fired plant, 600-MW Limay thermal facility, 340-MW San Roque hydro facility, and the 1200-MW Ilijan natural gas-fired facility.