DoubleDragon plans additional offer of $ bonds

MANILA, Philippines — DoubleDragon Corp. plans to conduct an additional offering or a tap offering of its Singapore-listed US dollar bonds.

In industry parlance, a tap issue is a procedure that allows borrowers to sell bonds or other short-term debt instruments from past issues.

In a disclosure yesterday, DoubleDragon said its wholly owned offshore subsidiary, DDPC Worldwide Pte. Ltd., mandated Switzerland-headquartered UBS to arrange a series of fixed income investor calls.

A tap offering on DDPC Worldwide’s $130 million 2025 senior guaranteed notes listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd. may follow. The existing notes have an interest rate of 7.25 percent.

Any additional offering will be consolidated with and increase the outstanding principal amount of DDPC Worldwide’s existing Singapore-listed notes.

Proceeds of the new fundraising activity would fund DoubleDragon’s bold hotel expansion abroad, starting with its Hotel101 Niseko Hokkaido Japan project.

Proceeds would also be used for general corporate purposes.

DoubleDragon intends to diversify its funding sources as it prepares to grow its business operations outside the Philippines over the long-term.

Philippine companies have successfully offered and listed fixed term senior bonds and perpetual securities on the Singapore Exchange in recent years.

Last week, local debt watcher Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) upgraded its corporate credit rating given to DoubleDragon to PRS Aaa, the highest rating, taking into account the company’s growing portfolio.

DoubleDragon has completed a portfolio of over 1.2 million square meters of gross floor area positioned strategically in various parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Furthermore, the portfolio is in select sunrise real estate industries such as provincial retail leasing through CityMall community center; office buildings such as DD Meridian Park complex in Bay Area Pasay and the 42-storey Jollibee Tower in Ortigas CBD.

Another leg of business is warehouse leasing through the company’s string of CentralHub warehouse complexes.

The latest addition to its portfolio is Hotel101 hotels in the Philippines, as well as the most recently completed purchase of a 9,000-sqm land in Hokkaido, Japan.

DoubleDragon chairman Edgar “Injap” Sia II said the company plans to make Hotel101 become a global Filipino brand.