SM Investments raises $300M from bond issue

SM Investments Corp., the holding firm of shopping mall tycoon Henry Sy, on Friday said it had launched and priced a $300 million 5-year convertible bond issue. In a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SM Investments said the issue was ten times oversubscribed, allowing the bonds to fetch a maturity of only 3.5 percent per year. Similar US and Philippine papers usually fetch yields of about 5 percent per year. The offer size was originally set at $200 million, but SM Investments said brisk demand prompted the firm to exercise its greenshoe option of $100 million. "We are very pleased with the outcome of the exercise which gave SM access to cheap financing at a time when confidence in the Philippine economy runs high in the international financial markets," SM Investments president Harley Sy said. The firm said the offer is the largest convertible bond issue by a Philippine firm in a decade. Joint lead managers of the issue are Citigroup and Macquarie Securities (Asia) Ltd. SM Investments earlier said it would use part of the offering proceeds to refinance its more expensive debt. -Patricia De Leon, GMANews.TV