PDEx bond listing tally tops P900B

BOND listings at the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx), the country’s trading platform for fixed-income securities, have surpassed the P900billion level, a top official said on Friday.

“For its part, today’s issuance will take the total outstanding face amount of bonds listed on PDEx across the P900 billion mark to P913 billion, and the year-todate amount of listings to P120.92 billion,” PDEx President and Chief Operating Officer Antonino Nakpil said.

Nakpil was referring to the listing of P15 billion worth of fixed-rate bonds by San Miguel Corp. through its power arm SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., the 15th listing at the PDEx this year.

SMC Global’s five-year Series G Fixed Rate Bonds carry an interest rate of 6.75 percent. Interest will be paid quarterly on February 17, May 17, August 17, and November 17 of each year.

During the listing ceremony, SMC Global General Manager Elenita Go said the fixed-rate bond listing is the second and final tranche of its P35-billion shelf registration written bonds and the third issuance since the incorporation of the company in 2008.

“The large sizes have been par for the course for the SMC group, as its companies have always come to the capital markets, trusting the capability of investors to supply the funding and confident of their ability to access their resources,” Nakpil said.

He added SMC is working toward “launching what is expected to be the largest ever initial public offering to be done in the Philippine equity market and raising over P120 billion in funds, locally and globally.”

In December last year, PDEx Chairman and CEO Crisol reported that the total outstanding amount of bonds listed for 2017 was P792.5 billion, compared to just P10 billion in 2008, with a compounded annual growth rate of 62.55 percent over the past nine years.

New listings for 2017 hit P207.43 billion, a 37-percent increase from the previous year.

Speaking at SMC Global’s bond listing, Crisol also said PDEx was hopeful that the enrolment framework for fixed-income issuances would develop and dovetail smoothly with the funding requirements of infrastructure projects under the “Build, Build, Build” program of the Duterte administration.

Incorporated in 2003, PDEx provides trading infrastructure for fixed-income and foreign exchange markets. It is the trading services arm of the PDS Group.