THE Philippines’ biggest mall owner and operator said its debt paper issuance was oversubscribed despite the volatile market.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPHI) said it completed the P5-billion floating and fixed rate notes facility that would help fund its capital expenditures and general corporate requirements.
“The facility was over-subscribed with eleven primary institutional lenders subscribing to the Issue. The strong response by the market to this financing illustrates the high credit quality of SMPHI, as well as the local market’s confidence in SM Prime,” the company said.
The fund raising activity was arranged by affiliate BDO Capital and Investment Corp. with PNB Capital and Investment Corp. as co-lead arranger.
This year, SM Prime plans to open several SM City malls in Camarines Sur, Cavite, Las Piñas, and the Sky Garden at SM City North edsa. The company is also set to expand SM City Rosales in Pangasinan.
By the end of the year, SM Prime eyes to have 36 malls nationwide with an estimated gross floor area (GFA) of 4.5 million square meters. Including the SM malls in China, the company’s estimated GFA will reach 4.9 million square meters.
Jeffrey Lim, SM Prime chief finance officer, said the funds would be used to refinance a US$ 70-million debt availed in 2004 from several foreign banks, which will mature in October this year.
Last year, SM Prime’s consolidated net income rose by almost 7 percent to P6.4 billion from the previous year as revenues climbed by 12 percent to P17.8 billion.
Profit growth last year, however, was slower than the 10 percent seen in 2007.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 9 percent to P12.3 billion, for an EBITDA margin of 69 percent.
These results include the company’s three SM malls in Xiamen and Jinjiang in Southern China, and Chengdu in Central China, which the Philippine company acquired in the latter part of 2007.