Taking advantage of prevailing low interest rates and its stronger financial performance in recent years, ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’s largest multimedia conglomerate, today signed a P10 billion syndicated term loan agreement to refinance existing debt as well as fund planned capital expenditures and general working capital requirements.

Bank of the Philippine Islands, Banco de Oro , Security Bank, Insular Life, Allied Bank and AlliedBank Savings, and PNB and PNB Life funded the loan.

The loan agreement was signed by President & COO Ma. Rosario Santos-Concio and Chief Finance Officer Rolando P. Valdueza for ABS-CBN. In his closing remarks, Mr. Valdueza thanked the participating lenders for their continuing confidence in ABS-CBN, and for their support of the Company’s business and financial prospects. “The oversubscribed order book for our debt refinancing and new debt is a clear manifestation of how our partnership has grown over the years,” he said.

Of the P10 billion total loan amount, P6.6 billion will go toward refinancing existing debt, while the remainder of P3.4 billion in new debt will help fuel the Company’s continuing growth. The new debt is intended for planned capital expenditures in digital terrestrial TV infrastructure and the continuing expansion requirements for cable TV and other services.

The loan was structured as an unsecured and unsubordinated bullet and partly amortizing loan maturing in 2017, priced at a 65 basis points spread over the 7-year PDST-F benchmark for the fixed rate portion of the loan, and over the 3-month PDST-F for the floating rate portion. Consequently, ABS-CBN’s effective interest cost on all its interest-bearing debt goes down by about two percentage points, from which the Company expects to generate savings in annual interest expenses of about P92 million. Apart from the savings that will be generated, the new loan agreement also incorporates more relaxed covenants.

BPI Capital Corporation acted as Lead Arranger and Sole Book-runner for the transaction. BDO Capital and Security Bank acted as loan arrangers, while PNB Capital and Insular Life were co-arrangers. BPI’s Asset Management and Trust Group will serve as the loan’s facility agent.