San Miguel Corp, the Philippine conglomerate whose businesses range from beer and food to oil, power and infrastructure, has launched a tender offer for its exchangeable bonds that mature in May 2014. The bonds, which are exchangeable into treasury shares held by the company, pay a 2% coupon and have an outstanding face value of $600 million.
The tender will be conducted through a Dutch auction, which means that the bondholders can offer to tender their bonds at whatever price they find suitable. However, the company has set a maximum price of 107.75 per bond. This means it may have to pay up to $646.5 million to buy back the...