PHL eyeing Euro bond retail to broaden funding sources

MANILA is mulling over issuing Eurodenominated retail bonds (RTB) to capitalize on the keenness of European business to invest in the Philippines, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.

Diokno said the European business community expressed warm interests to invest in the Philippines through debt papers during their recent Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) in Frankfurt, Germany.

“When we were in Frankfurt, German [businessmen] told us why we don’t issue Euro-denominated [retail bonds]? We are considering that,” Diokno said in an interview with reporters on Friday.

Diokno said the national government does not have a timeline yet on when it will issue the Euro-denominated RTBS, but emphasized that he expects that the offering would be met with a “strong” demand.

“There will be strong demand and strong interest especially with the seniors, not just the OFWS [overseas Filipino workers]. But also from the Filipino-germans who want to invest in the country because of the high return over time and it is tax free,” Diokno added.

He also cited the overwhelming demand during the last offshore bond offering by the Philippines that had a total tender of $28 billion. The Philippines raised $3 billion from the said dollar bond sale. (Related story: https:// businessmirror.com.ph/2023/01/10/phlraises-3b-from-dollar-bond-sale/)

The finance chief also expressed optimism toward the Bureau of the Treasury’s local retail bond offering (RTB) next week.

The Treasury is set to launch on February 7 the RTB-29 that seeks to raise a minimum aggregate amount of P30 billion from local investors.

Last year, the national government was able to raise over P400 billion twice from its offering of RTBS.

The Treasury raised P458 billion during the 27th offering of RTBS in the first quarter of last year and another P420 billion from the 28th tender of RTBS.