MANILA, Philippines — Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, is set to start the sale of its P20 billion preferred share offering on May 27.

The indicative rates are 6.8002 percent to 7.1502 percent per annum for Series 3A and 7.0737 percent and 7.4237 percent per annum for Series 3B.

The pricing will be finalized on May 23, while the offer period will run from May 27 to 31 before the tentative listing date on June 10.

Petron plans to sell P15 billion in preferred shares. It has the option to sell another P5 billion in preferred shares for a total of P20 billion.

Series 3A preferred shares may be redeemed after 5 ½ years or any dividend payment date thereafter, while Series 3B may be redeemed on the seventh anniversary of the listing date.

Petron has tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp. and PNB Capital and Investment Corp. as joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters and joint book runners.

Preferred shares are cumulative, non-voting, non-participating, non-convertible and peso-denominated.

Petron, which is part of the San Miguel Group, reported a 50 percent drop in 2018 net income to P7.1 billion.

The company attributed this to lower global crude prices that resulted in inventory losses of P10 billion for the last two months of the year.

Operating income fell 32 percent to P18.9 billion. Excluding the one-time item, profits would have ended 21 percent higher at P17 billion.

Meanwhile, consolidated sales rose 28 percent to P557.4 billion. Petron managed a combined sales volume of 108.5 million barrels, slightly higher than the 107.8 million barrels sold in 2017.