SM Prime Holdings Inc. of the Sy family plans to raise up to P35 billion from the offering of fixed-rate bonds.
The base offer size is P25 billion but SM Prime reserves the option to issue an additional P10 billion in case of oversubscription.
The issue represents the fifth tranche of the company’s proposed three-year debt securities program of up to P100 billion.
SM Prime said the bonds were assigned the highest credit rating of PRS Aaa, which suggests that the issue has a strong capacity to meet its financial obligations.
SM Prime Holdings is focused on further expanding its presence in the provinces, particularly to cover Northern Luzon, Visayas and the progressive cities in Mindanao.
SM Prime has 58 malls in the provincial areas and 24 malls in Metro Manila.
For this year, SM Prime is set open four new malls in the Philippines and in China. These include SM City Bataan, SM Center San Pedro, SM City Sto. Tomas in the Philippines, and a mall in Yangzhou, China.
These projects will provide 0.2 million square meters of gross floor are.
SM Prime’s residential arm SM Development Corp. also plans to expand its operations in the provinces to help bridge the housing gap.
With 18 residential developments already in key provincial cities, the company is well positioned to meet the growing demand for housing in these regions.
