The Henry Sy-led conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) announced on Thursday that it has set the rate for its $500 million seven-year bond issue.

 

In a disclosure to Philippine Stock Exchange, SMIC’s bond issue will be at a fixed rate of 4.25 percent an annum.

SMIC said in the disclosure that the issue was substantially oversubscribed, attracting subscriptions totaling $3.1 billion from institutional and private banking investors within the Philippines and across Asia and Europe, allowing them to upsize the initial indicative size of the issue to $500 million.

SMIC executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jose Sio said that the bond issue is their way of maintaining their presence in the bond market, and fostering a sustainable relationship with the international investment community.

The landmark bond issue was priced with one of the lowest ever coupons for a seven-year fixed rate bond issued by a Philippine corporation.

SMIC appointed Citi, Deutsche Bank, and J.P. Morgan as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners for the transaction.

In the previous month, SMIC announced that it will launch six additional malls in China in the next three to four years, which will bring about a total of 10 SM malls in the region, since four malls were already established there.

Sio said in an earlier report that in three to four years time, several SM malls will be built in China that will complete the number of 10 malls. As of this time, SM has four malls in China, which posted a substantial 30-percent increase in revenue to P1.3 billion in the first half and contributed 9 percent to SM’s consolidated revenues.

For this year alone, SM will be launching another mall in the region.