NLEX Corp., a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., is considering the issuance of up to P6 billion worth of fixed rate bonds this month to finance toll road expansion.
MPTC president Rodrigo Franco said the company was waiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission on the planned bond offering before proceeding with the exercise.
NLEX in March filed with the SEC a bond shelf registration of up to P25 billion with an initial tranche of P4 billion and P2 billion to cover oversubscription.
Rodrigo said the company was looking at a tenor of seven and 10 years for the first tranche of the bond issue.
With interest rates expected to go up, Franco said the company was already planning a second tranche offering sometime in the second half of the year.
NLEX is engaged in project development, design, construction, financing, operation and management of toll roads. It holds the concession on North Luzon Expressway, the largest toll road in the country,
The tollroad company earlier budgeted P19 billion in capital expenditures for this year to finance the construction of new expressway projects to help solve Metro Manila’s traffic bottlenecks.
The company is set to complete this year the NLEX Harbour Link, 5.8-kilometer project in Caloocan City. The P10.5-billion project will reduce traffic from Ports of Manila to NLEx by 10 minutes.
The tollroad firm also also startedthe construction of the NLEX Harbour Link Radial Road 10. The P6.7-billion project, with 70 percent of the right-of-way issues resolved, is slated for completion by the first half of 2019. Jenniffer B. Austria
Other projects scheduled this year are the expansion of the Subic Freeport Expressway, the construction of a new expressway service facility and rest area along Km. 17 Southbound of the NLEx and and the P24-billion NLEx-SLEx Connector Road project, which is expected to reduce travel time from the two expressways from 1.5 to 2 hours to 20 minutes.
MPTC last week reported that traffic in the NLEX rose9 percent in the first quarter of the year from a year ago.