Vista Land to issue up to P10-B retail bonds

Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., the property unit of the Villar Group, will sell up to P10 billion in fixed-rate retail bonds.

In a meeting yesterday, the company’s board of directors approved the issuance of P5 billion in bonds with an oversubscription option of another P5 billion.

The amount will come from the company’s remaining 15 billion bonds under the shelf-registration facility of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Management will determine the other terms and conditions of the issuance of the offer bonds as may be advantageous to the company including the interest rates, Vista Land said in a disclosure yesterday.

It has tapped China Bank Capital Corp. as issue manager for the offering.

Proceeds will likely used for capital expenditures and refinancing needs.

The company is optimistic about the prospects of the property industry given the strong and improving demand in residential business as well as the sustained growth of its leasing business propelled by the steady growth in the disposable income, overseas Filipino remittances, sound Philippine macroeconomic fundamentals and continued infrastructure development around the country especially in areas outside Metro Manila.

The company reported a 17 percent growth in net income to P5.2 billion in the first half. Given its strong performance, Vista Land revised upward its profit growth guidance for 2018 to 15 percent to 17 percent from the previous estimate of 12 percent.

Consolidated revenues rose 16 percent to P21.1 billion.

Vista Land continues to benefit from strong demand from end-users and is not affected by rising inflation and the depreciation of the peso against the green back.

During the first semester, the company launched P23.7 billion worth of residential projects, mostly outside Metro Manila.

As a result, Vista Land increased its geographic presence to 143 cities and municipalities and 47 provinces.