Ayala Land to issue P2.38-billion fixed rate notes

Property giant Ayala Land Inc (ALI) will issue P2.38-billion worth of fixed corporate notes through a private placement.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ALI said the notes will be issued in three tranches with maturities of five, seven and 10 years. 

The proceeds will be used to fund general corporate purposes including capital expenditures, the company said. 

Insular Investment & Trust Co., First Metro Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. are the joint lead underwriters for the issue.

Amid a financial crunch that has slowed down global economic growth, ALI is working as usual with plans to spend more this year, if not at the same level as last year. The year 2008 was a banner year for the company in terms of capex and revenues.

Given the strong demand for low to middle-income housing, ALI intends to build more subdivisions catering to these segments of the market. 

For its shopping malls operations, ALI will start the redevelopment of Glorietta 1 and 2 with the establishment of a hotel, office building and condominium projects.

The company expected to end 2008 with a total gross leasable area of 160,000 square meters or double the year-earlier figure. This is expected to increase by another 100,000 square meters this year with the addition of more office buildings and expansion of existing malls.

Bulk of the 2008 capex went to the development of 5,600 new residential units from new projects and additional phases in existing projects.

About 30 percent was channeled to the expansion of its business process outsourcing space, significantly higher than the 12 percent a year earlier. The balance will be used to fund the redevelopment of the Ayala Center and Greenbelt, and beef up its landbanking activities with focus on acquiring key sites in the Mega Manila area and other geographies with attractive and fast-growing economies. — Zinnia Dela Peña