SMC buys back 71% of $400M worth of notes

CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. said it had bought back 71 percent of about $400 million worth of notes listed in Singapore that it was seeking to redeem via a tender offer, a stock exchange filing on Monday showed.

SMC said a total of $283.62 million in notes had been validly tendered and accepted as of the April 1, 2015 deadline.

The notes are part of the company’s $800 million worth of notes falling due in 2023. However, San Miguel said last month that it was seeking to tender only half of that amount, or $400 million.

The company on April 1 also raised P20.96 billion ($470.7 million) from the sale of preferred shares, with the proceeds earmarked for the redemption of the notes listed in Singapore.

SMC said in a previous stock exchange filing that it had executed subscription agreements for the sale, via private placement, of 279.41 million Series ‘‘1’’ preferred shares to three entities.

The perpetual, cumulative and nonvoting shares were priced at P75 each and will pay a dividend rate of 5.635 percent per year. The company also has the option to redeem the shares three years from the issue date, the filing showed.

SMC posted a net recurring income of P27.9 billion in 2014, up 244 percent.

It attributed the gains to the growth of its traditional and new businesses. The increase excludes the one-time gain registered in 2013 from the sale of its shares in Manila Electric Co., which brought its net income at that time to P50.7 billion.

Consolidated sales revenue reached P782 billion, 5 percent higher than the level in the previous year, as majority of its businesses posted higher sales, while operating income improved 1 percent to P55.8 billion, SMC said.

In the meantime, consolidated Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) reached P88.1 billion, 14 percent higher than the level in 2013. Miguel R. Camus

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