Bangkok--9 Jun--PTTEP
Somporn Vongvuthipornchai, President and Chief Executive Officer of PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), revealed that on June 8, 2016, the Company launched a tender offer for the USD 500 million bonds, issued and offered to foreign institutional investors with maturity in 2018. The process is expected to complete in June 2016. The Company will fund the purchases of bond with existing cash resources. The tender offer is being made as part of PTTEP's strategy to manage its liquidity and liability profile which helps strengthen the Company's capital structure through a lower debt-to-equity ratio, improve credit rating confidence and lower financing costs and allow the Company to manage its debt structure to suit business needs. Should the additional funding requirement arise, the Company can access the capital market that currently has high liquidity and relatively low interest rates. Together with cash on hand of USD 3.2 billion and the unused committed and uncommitted credit lines with commercial banks of approximately USD 1 billion, the completion of the transaction will put the Company in a better position to cope with oil price volatility with increased flexibility to capture any future investment opportunities.
He added in the closing remarks, "In the environment where E&P companies are affected by the volatile oil prices, it is important to manage costs and the capital structure effectively, be financially flexible and prepared for industry challenges as well as future investment opportunities."