Treasury cuts short RTB offer

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) concluded yesterday the sale of five-year fixed-rate Retail Treasury bonds (RTB) due to strong demand from the general investing public.

In an interview, National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon said the government has cut short the offering period for RTB, two days ahead of the original planned date of Nov. 29.

According to De Leon, the RTBs have so far been “very well subscribed” with money raised going over the P200 billion mark.

“We still don’t know (the total amount). But we’re over P200 billion. It’s very huge already. We’re cutting it short,” she said.

During the price-setting auction for the RTBs maturing by 2022, the BTr has raised a total P130 billion at a coupon rate of 4.625 percent.

Total tenders amounted to P191.81 billion, more than six times the P30 billion offering, prompting the Treasury to expand its issuance to accommodate the strong market demand.

This was the 20th RTB offer- ing of the Philippine government, and the second batch this year.

Earlier, de Leon said the amount raised from the RTB offering would finance the government’s programs and projects for 2018.

Meanwhile, the BTr rejected yesterday all bids for Treasury-bills after the issuance of RTBs absorbed the liquidity in the market, and ensured a healthy cash flow for the government.

If the Treasury had accepted bids, average rate for the 91-day T-bills could have reached 2.559 percent, 41.1 basis points up from 2.148 percent the previous auction last November 16.

The six-month T-bills could have also fetched an average rate of 2.871 percent, 30.8 basis points up from 2.563 percent, while average yield of oneyear debt papers could have settled at 3.234 percent, 28.2 basis points higher than 2.952 percent.

Demand for T-bills only reached P10.5 billion, falling short of the P20 billion initial offering.