Budweiser to Metro Pacific: Asian firms using IPO proceeds to pare debt

Budweiser Brewing is using the $5 billion in proceeds from its Hong Kong IPO to repay debt, according to a listing prospectus

Metro Pacific Investments plans to use most of its proceeds from the biggest-ever Philippine IPO to repay debt.

The firm could receive as much as $1 billion from the listing of its unit Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings.

Metro Pacific’s deleveraging plan came on the heels of the world’s biggest share sales this year.

Budweiser Brewing is using the $5 billion in proceeds from its Hong Kong IPO to repay debt, according to a listing prospectus.

Embassy Office Parks REIT, backed by Blackstone, raised $689 million through a listing in Indian earlier in March, and used most of the money to cut debt.

In contrast, growth and expansion topped the use of proceeds for large Asian IPOs last year. None of the 13 billion-dollar IPO issuers in 2018 said debt repayment was the major use of proceeds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Metro Pacific and its subsidiaries hold $4.73 billion in debt, after the company amassed toll road, power, water and hospital assets.

While Budweiser said its public offering is primarily for deleveraging, the proceeds may also be used for acquisitions, Jefferies analysts Edward Mundy and Elsa Hannar wrote in a note last month.