NLEX Corp., a toll road operator formerly known as Manila North Tollways Corp., filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a P25-billion bond shelf registration.
NLEX said it would issue an initial tranche of P4 billion with an oversubscription option for another P2 billion. The bonds will have tenors of seven and 10 years.
The company tapped BDO Capital and Investments Corp. and First Metro Investments Corp. as underwriters for the planned bond offering.
Subject to regulatory approvals, the offer period will be on April 23 to April 27. The bonds will be listed with the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.
Net proceeds from the bond offering will be used to finance capital expenditures of the company, based on the filing.
NLEX is owned by Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., which is the tollway unit of infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
It is primarily engaged in project development, design, construction, financing, operation and management of toll roads. It holds the concession for North Luzon Expressway, the largest toll road in the country,
The tollroad firm earlier budgeted P19 billion in capital expenditures for this year to build new expressways that will help ease Metro Manila’s traffic bottlenecks.
The bulk of the company’s 2018 capital expenditure would be used to construct the urban portions of NLEx such as the Harbor Link Segment 10 (including the R10 Section in Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas City) and the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road project.
The tollway company said the planned investment assumed the satisfactory resolution of the tariff adjustments. It was still subject to review and adjustment depending on the results of the discussions on the tariff, it said.
Harbor Link Segment 10 is a 5.7-kilometer elevated expressway traversing NLEx from Smart Connect Interchange and crossing over Mac Arthur Highway in Valenzuela City with down ramps along C3/5th Avenue Interchange in Caloocan City. Jenniffer B. Austria
Once Harbor Link is completed, travel between the Ports of Manila and NLEx is expected to take only 10 minutes, providing direct expressway access to commercial vehicles, specially heavy trucks.
