SMC Global Power raises P15 billion from fixed rate bonds

MANILA, Philippines — SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. has successfully completed the last tranche of its fixed rate bond offering, raising P15 billion.

On Friday, the company held the ceremonial listing of its P15 billion Series G Fixed Rate Bonds Due 2023 at the Philippines Dealing and Exchange (PDEx).

The bond offering was the second and last tranche of its three-year P35 billion shelf registration issuance. Last December, SMC Global Power issued P20 billion worth of bonds to refinance its debt.

The latest issuance has a tenor of five years and is set to mature on Aug.17, 2023.

BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp. China Bank Capital Corp. and PNB Capital and Investment Corp. are the joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters and bookrunners of the issuance.

Local credit watchdog Philippine Rating Services Corp. earlier assigned an issue credit rating of PRS Aaa with a stable outlook to SMC Global Power’s P15 billion offering.

PRS Aaa is the highest credit rating on PhilRatings’ long-term issue credit rating scale.

Obligations rated PRS Aaa are of the highest quality with minimal credit risk. It means the issuer’s capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligation is extremely strong.

A stable outlook, on the other hand, means that the rating is likely to be maintained or to remain unchanged in the next 12 months.

In assigning the rating, PhilRatings considered SMC Global Power’s leading market position, strong support from its parent company San Miguel Corp.,  stable earnings and substantial cash flows, and  its ideal position to capitalize on the growing demand for electricity in the Philippines.

“For its part, today’s issuance will take the total outstanding face amount of bonds listed on PDEx across the P900 billion market to P913 billion, and the year-to-date amount of listings to P120.92 billion,” Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. president and chief operating officer (COO) said at the listing ceremony.

“The large sizes have been par for the course for the SMC group, as its companies have always come to the capital markets trusting the capability of investors to supply the funding and confident of their ability to access those resources,” Nakpil said.

At present, the number of outstanding corporate securities stands at 147 securities, while there are 47 corporate issuers with outstanding listed issues.

SMC Global Power is one of the country’s leading and largest power companies, with a combined capacity of 4,153 megawatts (MW) or about 19 percent of the power supply of the national grid, 25 percent of the Luzon grid, and nine percent of the Mindanao grid.

Its diversified mix of fuel supply consists of natural gas, coal and hydropower resources.

SMC Global Power, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, serves as the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) for the Sual, Ilijan and San Roque power plants. In addition to these IPPAs, the company’s existing power portfolio also includes the 218 MW Angat hydroelectric power plant in Bulacan, the 450 MW greenfield power plant in Limay, Bataan, the 300 MW greenfield power plant in Malita, Davao and the recently-acquired 640 MW Masinloc power generating facility in Masinloc, Zambales.