Ayala Corp redeems P10 billion bonds

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Corp., the country’s oldest conglomerate, redeemed its P10 billion 2023 bonds last July 7.

In a disclosure yesterday, Ayala said the payment was made through the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp., the appointed registrar and paying agent for the bonds.

Ayala also had a P4.5 billion short term debt which matured last month.

For this year, Ayala set capital expenditures of P264 billion, lower than the P280.3 billion spent last year.

As for raising funds, the conglomerate is unlikely to have more fund-raising activities for the rest of the year although Ayala CFO Alberto de Larrazabal has said the company might raise funds for next year, depending on market conditions.

Ayala has been keeping its balance sheet strong.  It earlier targeted to raise $1 billion from the sale of non-core assets.

It has already divested some of its non-core assets, such as its toll road south in Manila which was sold to Manuel Villar’s Prime Asset Ventures for P3.8 billion.

The sale of non-core assets is aimed at recycling capital to focus on the expansion of its core business such as power, banking and telecommunications while developing healthcare and logistics.

Ayala is the holding company of the Ayala Group of Companies, with principal business interests in real estate and hotels, financial services and insurance, telecommunications, water,  industrial technologies, power and automotive, outsourcing and others.