by PLDT Media Services | Mar 21, 2011

Manila, Philippines, March 21, 2011 - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (“PLDT”) priced PHP5 billion 5-year, 7-year and 10-year fixed rate notes with a group of primary institutional lenders last March 18, 2011.  Issue date will be March 24, 2011.  The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (“HSBC”) acted as the sole lead manager and bookrunner for this transaction. Proceeds from the facilities will be used to finance capital expenditures and refinance existing debt obligations.

The PLDT notes fetched a credit spread of 30 basis points over the relevant 5-year, 7-year and 10-year benchmark rates, which remains the lowest ever priced by the investor market for a peso capital market transaction by a corporate issuer in recent history. The 5-year, 7-year and 10-year notes were fixed at a yield of 6.5692 percent, 7.3365 percent, and 7.7946 percent, respectively.

The notes issue was 1.8 times oversubscribed, with books reaching PHP9.087 billion in orders, demonstrating investor confidence in PLDT’s strength and leadership.  The lenders were a mix of universal, savings, trust and investment banks, investment funds and insurance companies.

"The strong support by investors is both a testament to the strong credit of PLDT and a validation the company’s strategy.  We have never seen an issue price so tight, particularly given the current volatile global market conditions.  We commend PLDT’s capability to execute a notes issuance very quickly, allowing it to minimize potential price risks”, said Wick Veloso, Managing Director, Treasurer and Head of Global Markets of HSBC.  “We would like to congratulate PLDT for successfully navigating the market environment and achieving overwhelming demand from the investor community.” he added.

PLDT Treasurer and Senior Vice President Anabelle L. Chua expressed appreciation for the overwhelming response of the investors to this notes issuance and the tight pricing that the market accorded their latest debt transaction.

”We are pleased with the consistently strong support of our investors and would like to thank them for joining us in our vision for PLDT.  The proceeds of the issue will be used to partially finance capital expenditures for network expansion in pursuit of PLDT’s goal to be the undisputed market leader.” Ms. Chua said.