A unit of Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. has successfully raised abroad $225 million through corporate notes, the first dollar-denominated bond offering from a Philippine corporate this year, a government press release said.

The bond issuance was in conjunction with the tender offer for $ 103.76 million worth of corporate notes originally due September 2015, aimed at lowering the interest the company pays. The amount represents about 69.02 percent of Vista Land's outstanding $ 150-million bonds due 2015.

The Villar-led property firm said the positive results from the tender offer helped drive momentum for the new issue by its subsidiary Vista Land International Inc., which garnered a final order book of about $ 350 million from 44 accounts.

In terms of geographic distribution, around 95 percent of the bonds were distributed in Asia and the rest in Europe. By investor type, 60 percent of the bonds were distributed to banks, 28 percent to fund and asset managers and 12 percent to private banks.

Vista Land priced the new five-year issuance at a yield of 7.625 percent, representing a 12.5 basis points tightening from initial guidance of 7.75 percent. The bonds will bear a fixed interest coupon of 7.45 percent per annum, with interest payable semi-annually in arrears.

HSBC acted as sole global coordinator, and with DBS Bank Ltd., acted as joint book runners and joint lead managers on the bond issue and joint dealer managers on the tender offer.

BDO Capital & Investment Corp. acted as domestic lead manager on the bond issue and domestic deal manager for the tender offer.

Vista Land earlier said it was raising $ 225 million from the sale of new series of notes abroad to refinance debt, fund capital expenditures and for general corporate purposes.

It earmarked P21 billion for capital expenditures this year, P17.8 billion of which set for project construction and land bank, while the remaining P3.2 billion for land acquisition.*PNA

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