Aboitiz Power wraps up P10-B bond offer

MANILA, Philippines - Aboitiz Power Corp. the power generation arm of the Aboitiz Group, completed yesterday its offering of fixed-rate retail bonds worth P10 billion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange AboitizPower said the bonds will be issued in two series: Series A maturing on 2021 with a fixed interest rate of 5.205 percent per annum and Series B maturing on 2026 with an interest rate of 6.100 percent.

Proceeds would be used to partially finance the company’s new power generation projects, replenish working capital, and for other general corporate purposes.

“The Bonds were well received by both institutional and retail investors during the offer period resulting in an order book that was 2.4 times oversubscribed,” AboitizPower said.

Strong investor demand for the bonds prompted AboitizPower to trigger its oversubscription option and issue the bonds up to the maximum sixe of P10 billion.

The company offered the bonds from Aug. 29 to Sept. 3, with BPI Capital Corp. as sole issue manager and lead underwriter.

BDO Capital & Investment Corp., First Metro Investment Corp., and Land Bank of the Philippines acted as co-lead underwriters while China Banking Corp. and PNB Capital and Investment Corp. acted as participating underwriters to the issue, which will be listed on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.

The bonds earlier received the highest rating from local debt watcher Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings), which assigned a PRS AAA issue credit rating.

According to PhilRatings, obligations rated PRS Aaa are of the highest quality with minimal credit risk, with the issuer having an “extremely strong” capacity to meet its financial commitment.

PhilRatings took into account the company’s sustained high levels of cash and cash flows in relation to debt service requirements, its conservative capital structure which may accommodate additional debt and is supported by healthy growth in retained earnings, diversified portfolio with good growth prospects and experienced management team.