Petron Corp may borrow another $100M for capex

Petron Corp. may borrow another $100 million this year to support its capital expenditure program. The oil firm will sign on Monday the P5.5 billion five-year fixed Rate Corporate Notes Issuance (FXCN). Company sources said that Petron plans to jack up the issuance after it got overwhelming response from the financial market. Petron chairman Nicasio Alcantara confirmed that their board had allowed the company to raise $200 million to partially finance its $300 million petrochemical project. The P5.5 billion issue was already upsized from an original amount of P3.0 B after receiving bids amounting to P11.2 B, close to 4X oversubscription. Petron president Khalid Al-Faddagh said the company would be issuing more loan instruments in the future should the need arises. "We have received an overwhelming response from the market. We will evaluate if we will need to issue more since we got good rates from our recent issuance," he said. The facility was priced at 8.875 percent, 53 basis points lower than the July 21 5-year MART1 rate of 9.405 percent. The issue has achieved the distinction of being the largest peso private placement and the lowest-priced corporate issue of its kind. - GMANews.TV