PH announces 10-yr global bond offer

MANILA -- The Philippine government on Thursday announced its latest 10-year global bond offering, which will be issued with a swap offer for 14 series of bonds maturing between 2019 and 2037.

In a statement posted on the Bureau of the reasury (BTr) website, the government gave no indicative amount for the offering but said the settlement was expected to be done on February 1, 2018.

Earlier, National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon said the agency was considering offering a benchmark amount of at least $500 million.

The government tapped Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Standard Chartered Bank, and UBS AG Hong Kong Branch as joint lead managers for the bond offering.

Under the government’s 2018 program, 80 percent of its financing will be sourced from the domestic market, while the rest will come from offshore creditors.

The government plans to borrow about P888.227 billion this year, with the overseas borrowing set at around P176.269 billion.

Aside from the USdollar denominated bond, the government also plans to issue yendenominated Samurai bond and renminbidenominated Panda bond.

Finance officials said they were still awaiting regulatory approvals for the Panda bond.

In January 2017, the Duterte administration issued its first 25-year dollar-denominated Republic of the Philippines (ROP) bond amounting to $2 billion. This has a yield of 3.7 percent, lower than the 3.95 percent initial guidance.

$500 million of the proceeds of last year’s issuance was used to augment government funds for its programs, while the bulk, or $1.5 billion, was used to pay investors who submitted 14 series of bonds maturing between 2019 and 2037 for swap.

Last year’s bond sale attracted $4.5 billion worth of tenders, 43 percent of which came from Europe, 33 percent from Asia, and 24 percent from the US. PNA