GT Capital completes fundraising program

MANILA, Philippines - Conglomerate GT Capital Holdings Inc. of tycoon George S.K. Ty has completed a major fundraising program this year with the listing of P12 billion bonds in the country’s fixed income trading platform.

Proceeds from the fundraising program will allow the conglomerate to take advantage of the property boom through unit Federal Land Inc., company executives said yesterday.

“We believe that the success of our bond issuances validates the continued confidence of both institutional and individual investors in GT Capital,” said GT Capital co-vice chairman Alfred Ty.

“It pretty much covers the bulk of the fundraising for the year. The other fundraising will come from the component companies themselves but at the parent company level, it pretty much covers there,” added GT Capital president Carmelo Maria Luza Bautista.

GT Capital listed yesterday P12 billion bonds in the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx). With the listing of the fixed-rate bonds due 2019, 2021 and 2024, total listed amount of all GT Capital companies and affiliates hit P22 billion or five percent of the total corporate fixed-income issues in the organized secondary market.

“Furthermore, the PDEx listing of GT Capital’s bonds supports the sustained development of our country’s capital markets, and allows numerous investors nationwide to conveniently and securely trade their bond holdings,” Ty said.

GT Capital’s bonds received the highest PRS Aaa rating from debt watcher Philippine Rating Services Corp. Hence, the underwriters exercised the overallotment option of P2 billion, which is on top of the original float of P10 billion.

The latest bond listing is the 11th for the year, pushing the record total volume of new listings to P126.8 billion. It also brought the total level of tradable corporate debt instruments to P423.76 billion issued by 26 companies, with 74 securities being traded.

“This should signal a momentum of sustained growth which is very much different from the periods of boom-and-bust cycles of the past,” said PDEx chairman and CEO Cesar Crisol.

“(Fresh funds from the bond offering) is really for projects on the property side and strategic landbanking. Also, it’s for refinancing our initial purchases at the beginning of the year, which are the (auto) dealerships and Charter Ping An,” Bautista said.

GT Capital allotted P8 billion of the net proceeds to finance several prime projects of Federal Land in Metro Manila. It will be infused through an equity investment.

The conglomerate will spend as much as P6.2 billion to partially finance the construction of Park West, Central Park West and Madison Park West projects in Veritown Fort in Bonifacio Global City, GT Capital said.