Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sy power firm gets $225M loan

Funding share-swap scheme
By Daxim Lucas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:59:00 01/23/2011

MANILA, Philippines—Publicly listed UEM Development Philippines Inc. has secured a $225-million loan from Standard Chartered Bank as part of its effort to bulk up on financial muscle ahead of its foray into the infrastructure sector.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Henry Sy Jr.-led holding firm said that its board of directors had approved the loan—equivalent to about P10 billion at the prevailing exchange rate—from the Singaporean unit of the British bank.
UEM earlier said it was raising as much as P30 billion for its infrastructure projects as well as to refinance debts of the Sy-controlled National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, which inherited some $3 billion in liabilities from the state-owned National Power Corp.
According to UEM, its board also approved the pledging to the creditor of all shares of all subsidiaries and affiliates that would be created from its acquisition of holding firms Pacifica21 Holdings Inc. and OneTaipan Holdings Inc., effectively making the loan an equity-backed transaction.
OneTaipan and Pacifica21 were the holding units of Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto, respectively. The former owns a “30 percent plus one share” stake in NGCP while the latter owns “30 percent minus one share.” The balance of 40 percent is owned by State Grid of China.
As part of the transaction, UEM will then advance up to $225 million to Pacifica21 to help the latter refinance its debts, the company said.
Late last year, UEM announced that it would take control of the privatized electricity superhighway operated by NGCP.
UEM, which will be renamed Synergy Grid and Development Philippines Inc., has obtained prior shareholders’ approval for a share-swap scheme that will allow it to take over the two companies that control 60 percent of NGCP.
The plan is to issue 100 million common shares at P140 each in exchange for all the outstanding shares of OneTaipan Holdings and Pacifica21. The P14 billion worth of shares to be issued will be created out of the proposed increase in the authorized capital stock of the holding firm.
After completing the share swap, UEM will legally and beneficially own 100 percent of the outstanding shares of Pacifica21 and OneTaipan, paving the way for the backdoor listing of their interest in NGCP.
UEM is also amending its primary purpose to include the authority to engage in power, utilities, infrastructure and related businesses. A secondary purpose included construction.
“We’re also looking at infrastructure,” Sy said in an earlier interview, noting that this was in line with the public-private partnership projects being offered by the Aquino administration.
Sy, the eldest son and namesake of the country’s richest man, is undertaking the large-scale foray into infrastructure outside his family’s core interests in retailing, banking as well as shopping mall and property development under SM Investments Corp.

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