Leading oil firm Petron Corporation has accomplished on Tuesday, Oct. 12, its listing with the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation (PDEx) for the P18-billion first tranche of its fixed rate peso-denominated retail bonds.

That bond issue will be the initial fund-raising activity of the oil firm, out of the P50-billion shelf registration of fixed rate bonds previously approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Given that the first tranche issuance had been three times oversubscribed, Petron President and CEO Ramon S. Ang asserted that the oil firm is “particularly proud of the reception from our retail investors, signifying their confidence in Petron and our future as a company.”

The oil firm chief executive noted “despite some of the challenges we still face, we continue to pursue our strategic goals and ensure that we deliver long-term growth for the company.”

Ang further said “we are motivated to work harder in sustaining our leadership, knowing that we remain a viable and trusted investment option.”

Petron specified that the P18 billion issuance will consist of Series E bonds amounting to P9.0 billion and will be maturing in 2025 with an interest rate of 3.4408% per annum; and Series F bonds that will also be worth P9.0 billion to mature in 2027 and will be carrying an interest rate of 4.3368% per annum.

“Proceeds from this fundraising exercise will be used primarily for the redemption of Petron’s outstanding Series A bonds due in October this year, payment of existing indebtedness, and partial payment of the power plant project,” the oil firm said.

The retail bonds of Petron had been accorded with the highest credit rating of PRS Aaa by PhilRatings, entailing then that this will have “minimal credit risk.”

As emphasized by Petron, the power generating facility to be funded will be the expansion of its existing on-the-fence plant in Limay, Bataan – and the project blueprint sets capacity increase to 184 megawatts from currently at 140MW.

The power plant venture “is expected to be completed and operational in the second half of 2022 after testing, synchronization and pre-commissioning activities.”

For this round of bond offering, the sole issue manager is BDO Capital & Investment Corporation; the joint lead bookrunners and joint lead underwriters are BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, China Bank Capital Corporation, Philippine Commercial Capital Inc., PNB Capital and Investment Corporation, and SB Capital Investment Corporation.

Petron further stated that the co-lead underwriters in the bond issue are: First Metro Investment Corporation, Land Bank of the Philippines and RCBC Capital Corporation.


Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2021/10/12/petron-lists-p18-b-retail-bonds-with-pdex/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=petron-lists-p18-b-retail-bonds-with-pdex)