PETRON TO ISSUE P20-B FIXED-RATE BONDS

Petron Corp. is readying a P20billion issue of peso-denominated fixed-rate bonds, proceeds from which the oil refiner will use for debt refinancing.

The San Miguel Corp. subsidiary said in a statement that it had filed an application at the Securities and Exchange Commission for a permit to sell the debt paper, representing the last tranche of Petron’s shelf registration of up to P40 billion.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Petron issued the first tranche of P20 billion, including P5 billion through an oversubscription option.

For this second planned issue of Petron, creditwatcher Philippine Rating Services Corp. assigned a triple “A” or PRS Aaa rating with a “stable” outlook.

Petron—which supplies about 40 percent of the country's oil needs—processes crude oil into various products, including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), jet fu- el, kerosene and industrial fuel oil as well as petrochemical feedstock benzene, toluene, mixed xylene and propylene.

Recently, Petron engaged a subsidiary of American conglomerate Honeywell to expand and upgrade its refinery in Bataan with a planned 55-percent increase in capacity.

Petron president and chief executive Ramon S. Ang said the facility, which currently has a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels a day, will be ramped up to between 270,000 bpd and 300,000 bpd.