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MANILA - First Pacific Co. Ltd. has raised by a third its planned borrowing of $300 million, following "overwhelming" response from investors, the Hong Kong-based company's managing director said on Thursday night.
In his acceptance speech for the "Best CEO" award from Hong Kong-based FinanceAsia magazine, Manuel V. Pangilinan said the total demand for First Pacific's seven-year bonds reached $4.6 billion when they closed books Thursday night.
The demand was "more than 15 times what we wanted to raise," said Pangilinan.
He later told News 5 that First Pacific would upgrade the bond issuance to a little higher than $400 million.
In a statement issued on Friday, First Pacific confirmed that it placed a $400 million bond issue - seven-year senior guaranteed unsecured bonds that carry a coupon of six percent.
The borrowing lengthened the average maturity of the company's borrowings from 5.2 years to 5.6 years, as well as reduced First Pacific's floating-rate debt to 37 percent from 48 percent previously.
HSBC and Mizuho Securities were the joint book runners and joint lead managers, while HSBC and First Metro Investment Corp. were the joint Philippine domestic managers for the transaction.
First Pacific controls food manufacturer Indofoods, infrastructure firm Metro Pacific Investment Corp., Philex Mining Corp., and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.
Bank sources had told InterAksyon.com that the PLDT Group was in talks with some of the Philippines' biggest banks for a $300-million loan facility that would help fund its bid to acquire GMA Network Inc.
But when asked whether the borrowing was for the group's bid for GMA7, Pangilinan said, "As far as I know, no plans."
Pangilinan, who also chairs PLDT, earlier said talks for the acquisition of GMA7 were moving forward. If successful, the PLDT group, which owns TV5 through MediaQuest Holdings, would corner a bigger share of the broadcast market - prospect that ABS-CBN Corp. chairman Eugenio Lopez III shrugged off during the company's annual stockholders meeting also on Thursday.
Sought for comment, Pangilinan said ABS-CBN "shouldn't be threatened" since "they're claiming they are number one."
InterAksyon.com is the online news portal of TV5.
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