THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the issuance of P7.3 billion in fixed-rate bonds of South Luzon Tollway Corp. (SLTC), a unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
According to its prospectus, the debt will be listed at the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.
Series A of the bonds will have a tenor of five years and three months, Series B will have a maturity of seven years and Series C at 10 years.
BDO Capital and Investment Corp., PNB Capital and Investment Corp. and Standard Chartered Bank were picked as joint issue manager and underwriters for the deal.
The company said that proceeds of the bonds will prepay the P11-billion outstanding floating rate corporate notes that it secured from various Philippine banks in April 2012.
“The floating rate corporate notes refinanced the outstanding debt and advances due to related parties of the company, which were, in turn, effectively utilized to partially finance the construction, rehabilitation, expansion, operations and maintenance of the Slex [South Luzon Expressway],” it said. As of March, the corporate notes have an outstanding balance of P7.15 billion. SLTC bagged the 30-year concession in February 2006 to carry out the rehabilitation, construction and expansion of Slex.
The company is a specific-purpose entity incorporated by virtue of a joint-venture agreement between MTD Manila Expressways Inc. (MTDME) and state-owned Philippine National Construction Co. for the rehabilitation of Slex, which stretches from the Alabang viaduct to Lucena, Quezon.
San Miguel came into the picture after it purchased MTDME’s ultimate parent company Atlantic Aurum Investments BV, a company incorporated in the Netherlands.
It was only in March this year when San Miguel Holdings Corp. acquired some 95 percent of Atlantic Aurum. The rest of the 5 percent is still being owned by Padma Funds Lp., a limited partnership that has various investments in infrastructure firms in Indonesia. SLTC said toll revenues amounted to P4.4 billion last year, slightly higher than the P4.2 billion in the previous year and P3.96 billion in 2012.