Megaworld Corp., the property development arm of businessman Andrew Tan, said it raised $350 million from its seven-year senior unsecured fixed rate notes offering in the offshore market, the company’s first vanilla bond issuance since 2013.
The company said its paper fetched a coupon rate of 4.125 percent, and will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on August 3.
“This issuance puts Megaworld in a good position to benefit from the eventual recovery of the Philippine economy. In spite of the pandemic, demand for real estate offerings has remained strong as many still view it as a safe investment,” Kevin Andrew L. Tan, the company’s executive vice president, said.
“We foresee that business process outsourcing companies may need more office spaces because of physical distancing requirements. This infusion of funds will support our investment pipeline and future land banking initiatives.”
Investor calls were conducted throughout Asia and Europe on July 22, achieving participation and discussions among top investors, which centered on an update on the company’s credit and its relative resilience compared to other Philippine real estate issuers against the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic.
Terms for a new 7-year United States dollar benchmark were released the following day after receipt of significant indications of interest. Books were in excess of $500 million prior to the Asia lunch hour, and reached $1 billion prior to the release of final price guidance.
Almost 40 percent of the transaction was allocated to fund managers and asset managers.
Aside from setting the new record low for a dollar bond coupon from a Philippine real estate company, the printing of notes was among the largest issue size for dollar bond offering among real estate firms in the Philippines. It also recorded the fastest completion of dollar bond issuance by a Philippine corporate issuer at 11 days.
Citigroup Global Markets Limited and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd were appointed as joint global coordinators, joint lead managers and joint bookrunners, while Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities plc were appointed as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners.
BDO Capital and Investment Corp. was appointed as domestic lead manager.