Rare buying window seen in local stock market

The local bourse will provide a rare buying window in the next three weeks as the market is expected to weaken on pre-election jitters and turmoil in the world oil market, an analyst said Monday.

A re-balancing in the global MSCI index is also likely to dampen local trading, but the market is expected to recover after a new government is elected next month, Papa Securities chief equity analyst Ramon Kabigting said.

The benchmark index would recover to "as much as 7,800 as early as June," he said. It closed 77.90 points or 1.06 percent lower to 7,243.40 on Monday.

Kabigting's stock picks include Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, DMCI and Vista Land & Lifescapes.

"I'm big on infra because the budget there is tremendous at five percent of GDP (gross domestic product)... it's a very strong game," he said.

Metro Pacific could also benefit from having a new leader, who would most likely approach the negotiating table again to sort regulatory problems, he said.

Kabigting said he believed negotiations among oil-producing nations in Doha over the weekend, which failed to reach an agreement on production caps, was doomed from the start citing long-running tensions between Saudi and Iran.

Oil prices at $40 or even $30 per barrel should still be manageable for both overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East and their employers, but a drop to $20 per barrel would be worrisome, he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Vista Land markets bonds to refinance up to $500-M debt

MANILA - Philippine property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. is marketing a new set of dollar notes to pay back as much as $500 million bonds maturing this year through 2019, a company official said on Thursday.

Vista Land offered to redeem $100 million 6.75 percent notes due 2018 and $350 million 7.45 percent notes due 2019, to be funded by the issuance of new notes, the firm's investor relations chief Brian Edang told Reuters.

The company, one of the largest homebuilders in the Philippines, also plans to raise around $50 million to pay bonds maturing in September, he added.

Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported that the seven-year Reg S bond offering is being marketed to yield around 7.75 percent.

The amount and terms of the new bonds will be finalized later on Thursday, Edang said.

Vista Land hired DBS and HSBC as global coordinators and bookrunners of the bond offer.

BDO Capital and China Banking Corp. are the joint domestic lead managers for the offering.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com