SM Prime Holdings Inc. plans to raise P20 billion in fixed rate bonds to fund mall expansion and residential projects.
SM Prime said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission an application for a permit to sell fixed-rate bonds in the amount of P15 billion with an oversubscription option of up to P5 billion and with maturities of five years and seven years.
SM Prime’s latest bond offering is the third of the company’s P60 billion three-year debt securities program approved by the SEC in July 2016.
SM Prime has tapped BDO Capital and Investments Corp., China Bank Capital, BPI Capital Crop., First Metro Investments Corp., PNB Capital and Union Bank as joint underwriters for the offering.
SM Prime plans to open eight malls this year, mostly geared toward the provincial cities, to hits it target 75 malls by the end of 2018.
The malls slated for opening this year are SM Center Imus, SM City Legaspi, SM City Urdaneta, SM City Telabastagan, SM City Ormoc, SM Center Dagupan, SM Moonwalk Parañaque and SM Center Cabuyao.
The opening of new malls will boost the group’s mall gross floor area to 10.5 million square meters.
SM Prime as of end 2017 had an available land bank of 141.66 hectares for future mall development.
SM Prime in 2017 opened seven new malls to end the year with 67 outlet with a little over eight million sq. m. in gross floor area. The new malls that opened last year were SM Center Pulilan, SM Center Lemery, SM Center Tuguegarao, SM Cagayan de Oro, SM City Puerto Princesa, S Maison in Conrad Manila and SM Cherry Antipolo.
Meanwhile, SM Prime’s latest P20 billion bond offering recevied an issue rating of PRS Aaa. Obligations rated PRS Aaa are of the highest quality with minimal credit risk. The capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligations is extremely strong.
PRS Aa is the highest rating assigned by PhilRatings.
