AEV to issue P17.45 billion bonds

MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV), the listed conglomerate of the Aboitiz Group, will return to the bond market this year with an offering of P17.45 billion, inclusive of oversubscription.

The 2023 bonds will be issued as the second tranche of AEV’s P30 billion shelf registered debt securities program approved by the SEC in November 2022.

“Subject to market conditions, the 2023 bonds are expected to be offered to the general public during the third quarter of 2023,” AEV said in a disclosure yesterday.

AEV intends to list the 2023 bonds with the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., the country’s fixed income exchange.

For 2023, AEV has set aside almost P78 billion for capital expenditures to power its great transformation in line with its goal to become the Philippines’ first Techglomerate.

The bond issuance represents a 10 percent increase from the P70 billion utilized in 2022.

For this year, the Aboitiz Group is focused on investing in renewable energy and new businesses for its portfolio diversification and innovation-driven growth ambitions.

Last year, the largest capital investment of the Aboitiz Group was by a non-power strategic business unit. In 2022, P42 billion was spent by Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC), the infrastructure arm of Aboitiz.

This was used primarily for its airports, water, and telecommunication towers businesses, which are showing impressive growth prospects.

This year, Aboitiz continues its momentum of diversifying its business mix, particularly in the infrastructure segment.

The Infrastructure unit of the group will spend almost P32 billion or 42 percent of the group’s CAPEX budget.

This will go toward the continuous expansion of AIC’s economic estates, telecommunication towers business, as well as new investments in digital infrastructure.

In the first quarter of the year, AEV recorded a consolidated net income of P4 billion for the first quarter, representing a two percent increase from the P3.9 billion reported during the same period in 2022.

The company recognized non-recurring losses of P593 million during the period, primarily due to foreign exchange losses from the revaluation of US dollar cash and liquid financial instruments, compared to the P742 million in non-recurring gains for the corresponding period in 2022.

Without these one-off items, the company’s core net income for the first quarter of 2023 was P4.6 billion, a 44 percent jump year-on-year.