Aboitiz Power slates ₱6-B bond offering

Listed firm Aboitiz Power Corporation has slated on July 6 this year the issuance date for its fourth tranche of ₱6.0 billion bond offer as recently approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That bond issue has also been allotted to have an oversubscription of up to ₱3.55 billion, making the total proceeds that could be fetched to reach ₱9.55 billion.

“The offer period commenced on June 19, 2020 and will end on June 26, 2020,” the Aboitiz firm has emphasized.

The company engaged BDO Capital & Investment Corporation,

China Bank Corporation and First Metro Investment Corporation as joint issue managers and joint lead underwriters; BDO Unibank Inc - Trust and Investments Group as the trustee; and the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp. as the registrar and paying agent.

The bond offer, according to the company, is part of the ₱30 billion fixed rate retail bonds that had been under its 2017 shelf registration program with the SEC.

The proceeds, it said, “will be used to reimburse equity infusions”, primarily for the construction of the 1,336-megawatt Dinginin coal-fired power plant in Bataan province, its joint venture project with the Ayala group.

The project’s first unit should have been due for commercial commissioning first half of this year, but because of the lockdowns enforced by the government due to the coronavirus pandemic, the project sponsors indicated that testing and commissioning processes on the plant also stalled.

The project company was subsequently required by the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit full details on catch-up plan on the facility’s completion and its advancement to commercial operations – primarily from where it had been interrupted due to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) implemented in Luzon last March.