Petron completes securities sale

PETRON Corp. concluded the issuance of $550-million capital securities, which are now traded on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST).

“This is to advise that the company has completed today the issuance of US Dollar undated unsubordinated capital securities with an issue size of $550 million. The Securities are expected to be listed with the SGX-ST on April 20,” the oil company disclosed Tuesday.

Petron earlier said the securities have an initial rate of distribution of 5.95 percent per annum until April 19, 2026, payable semi-annually in arrears on April 19 and October 19.

Net proceeds could amount to $547.8 million, after the deduction of commissions. Petron will utilize this for the repayment of indebtedness and for general corporate purposes.

Based on company filings, Petron’s liabilities reached P263.53 billion as of end-2020. The amount is made up of P149.07 billion in current liabilities and P114.46 billion in non-current liabilities.

It has earmarked P11 billion in capital expenditure (capex) this year, higher than the P8.5 billion it allocated for 2020.

This year’s capex will be financed by a combination of internal cash generation and external financing sources.

Petron temporarily closed down its 180,000-barrel-per-day refinery in May last year and reopened in October. It again ceased refinery operations on February 10 and will reopen either May or June this year.

It is now seeking to complete the requirements cited by the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan to make Petron’s Bataan refinery one of the registered enterprises of the freeport zone. This involves an additional investment of P3 billion in the next 5 years.

It also plans to build a Refinery Solid Fired Boiler Phase 3. The P11billion “Petron Refinery Special Projects” will consist of two 200 tph Circulating Fluidized Broiler (CFB), two 22megawatt Backpressure Turbine Generators, 500-meter fuel transfer line.