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Brix Lelis - The Philippine Star
February 23, 2025 | 12:00am
In a regulatory filing, San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMGP) said the dollar-denominated perpetual securities were issued last Wednesday, with Deutsche Bank AG–Singapore Branch acting as the placement agent.
Businessworld / File
MANILA, Philippines — The power arm of tycoon Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corp. has raised an additional $100 million as it returned to the offshore debt market.
In a regulatory filing, San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMGP) said the dollar-denominated perpetual securities were issued last Wednesday, with Deutsche Bank AG–Singapore Branch acting as the placement agent.
The company has also secured the approval in-principle from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd. for the listing and quotation of the additional securities.
The proceeds from the issuance will be used by SMGP to partially finance the redemption of its outstanding senior perpetual capital securities issued in October and December 2020.
SMGP intends to consolidate the additional securities with the existing $500 million worth of securities to form a single series.
“Accordingly, the aggregate principal amount of the securities outstanding is $600 million,” it said.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said that perpetual securities have no fixed tenors unlike traditional bonds, which have maturity dates.
“This is a good combination of issuing securities that have perpetual tenors, especially for capital-intensive businesses and industries such as power and infrastructure that have long investment and payback periods,” Ricafort told The STAR.
This debt instrument, he said, would give issuers like SMGP “greater flexibility.”
“However, perpetual securities have higher interest rates due to the much longer payment period compared to fixed-income securities,” Ricafort said, noting that higher borrowing costs attract long-term investments.
Last December, SMGP completed the issuance of $500 million worth of senior perpetual capital securities to bankroll the development of its various projects.
As the power unit of the San Miguel, SMGP benefits from a diversified portfolio of natural gas, coal and renewable energy projects.
As of end-September 2024, the company’s combined power capacity stood at 5,357 megawatts.
