Cleary Gottlieb represented Petron Corporation in two Regulation S offerings of Undated Subordinated Capital Securities. The initial offering of the securities, which represented Petron’s first dollar-denominated capital markets deal, was for an aggregate principal amount of $500 million and closed on February 6. Cleary Gottlieb subsequently represented Petron in a reopening of the offering, in which Petron offered an additional $250 million in aggregate principal amount of the securities, bringing the total issue size to $750 million. This is the largest offshore perpetual bond issue by a Philippine company. The reopening closed on March 11, 2013, and all of the securities were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Petron, a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation, is the largest integrated oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines. It recently expanded overseas through the purchase of ExxonMobil’s Malaysian downstream business.
Originally founded in 1890 as a single brewery, San Miguel has recently diversified beyond its leading beverage, food and packaging business to include market-leading businesses and investments in the Philippines’ fuel and oil, power, airline, infrastructure, telecommunications, banking and mining industries.