Universal Robina Corporation URC, the Philippines largest snack food manufacturer, priced Asia's first bond deal of 2005 yesterday January 12. Under the lead of Credit Suisse First Boston and JPMorgan a $100 million issue was upsized to $125 million after order books closed at just over $350 million.
The BBBa3 rated issue has a seven-year maturity with a five year put option and was priced at 99.199% on a coupon of 8.25%. This equates to 473bp over five-year Treasuries and about 435bp over Libor.
At these levels the deal came through initial guidance of 8.5% to 8.625% and also achieved a slimmer premium...
