FLI firms up P12-billion retail bond offering


Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI), one of the property development units of the Gotianun Group, has finalized its plan to raise up to P12 billion from the issuance of fixed-rate peso-denominated retail bonds.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said it has filed online via email its Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

This is in connection with its planned offer and sale to the public of up to P9 billion worth of fixed-rate peso-denominated retail bonds with an oversubscription option of up to P3 billion.

The retail bonds will be issued in up to three subseries consisting of five-year bonds due 2030, seven-year bonds due 2032, and 10-year bonds due 2035.

This latest bond issuance will be the second tranche out of FLI's P35 billion shelf-registered peso-denominated bonds under SEC MSRD Order No. 64, Series of 2023.

FLI said it has mandated BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital Corporation, China Bank Capital Corporation, East West Banking Corporation, First Metro Investment Corporation, Land Bank of the Philippines, RCBC Capital Corporation, and Security Bank Capital Investment Corporation to manage this public offer and issuance. 

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company shall serve as the Trustee while FLI appointed Philippine Depository & Trust Corporation as Registrar and Paying Agent. The Philippine Rating Services Corporation will issue the credit rating. 

The Second Tranche Bonds will be listed with the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation (PDEx) when issued.

FLI is now ready to infuse more assets into Filinvest REIT Corporation (FILRT) after it recently increased the public float of FILRT following the voluntary tender offer via a swap of FLI and FILRT shares.

The firm said the tender offer enjoyed 2.3 times participation in excess of the cap—highlighting the Philippine equity market’s strong reception to FLI’s recent strategic initiative.

The Tender Offer Agent received applications totaling 4.24 million FLI common shares, equivalent to 17.47 percent of FLI’s issued and outstanding stock.

As a result, the entire 1.87 billion FLI common share cap of the tender offer was fulfilled, in exchange for 597.12 million (FILRT) common shares, or 12.20 perent of FILRT’s issued and outstanding stock.

The capped voluntary tender offer received significant support from major institutional FLI shareholders, as well as numerous minority shareholders from across the Philippines.

After the tendered shares were accepted and crossed last Dec. 9, 2024, and consideration shares settled on Dec. 11, 2024, FILRT’s public float reached 46.68 percent.

This is well above the SEC’s and PSE’s requirement of one-third of outstanding capital stock for REITs. Prior to the tender offer, FILRT’s public float was at 34.48 percent.

With the expansion in public ownership, FLI also creates room to infuse assets into FILRT while remaining compliant to be a publicly listed company, retaining 26.44 percent public ownership in FLI after the tender offer, which is well above the 10 percent minimum requirement of the PSE for publicly listed companies.