By JAMES A. LOYOLA
The Sy siblings’ holding company SM Investments Corporation is planning a dollar-denominated benchmark-sized Regulation S offering of five-year senior notes through subsidiary by SMIC SG Holdings Pte. Ltd.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), SMIC said it had mandated a group of banks as joint lead managers to arrange a series of fixed-income investor meetings in Asia and Europe starting today, July 16, 2024.
HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, and UBS were tapped as joint lead managers and joint book-runners, alongside BDO Capital and Chinabank Capital.
“A USD-denominated benchmark-sized Regulation S offering of 5-year senior notes by SMIC SG Holdings Pte. Ltd. guaranteed by SMIC may follow, subject to market conditions,” said SMIC.
It added that the notes are expected to be drawn from SMIC SG’s $3 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme.
The Issuer and Guarantor’s legal advisers are SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan for Philippine law and Latham & Watkins LLP for English law.
While legal advisors of the Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners are Picazo Buyco Tan Fider & Santos Offices for Philippine law, and Linklaters Singapore Pte. Ltd. for English law.
Last month, SMIC and subsidiary SM Prime Holdings Inc. reported that they have jointly established a $3.0 billion Multi-Issuer European Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme SMIC SG Holdings Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMIC and SMPHI SG Holdings Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SM Prime.
“This EMTN Programme will allow SMIC and SMPH to tap the offshore bond market to fund its continued growth and expansion,” the firm said.
SM Investments is allotting capital expenditures of P110 billion to P115 billion this year, 44 percent higher than the P80 billion spent in 2023, as it is cautiously optimistic about its prospects.
According to SM Senior Vice President for Finance Franklin C. Gomez, the capex does not include the budgets of its banking units, BDO Unibank and China Banking Corporation.
He noted that the bulk of the capex, amounting to P100 billion, will be accounted for by the property development arm SM Prime Holdings Inc., which is launching more residential units, opening new malls, and undertaking a massive reclamation project in Manila Bay.
SM Prime is looking at P100 billion for its capital expenditure program for 2024, 25 percent more than the P8 billion spent last year, as it remains committed to its role as a catalyst for economic growth, delivering innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities, thereby enriching the quality of life of millions of people.
Of the P100 billion capex, about P20 billion is for this year’s budget for the ongoing reclamation project.