PH considering euro bond sales

THE Philippine government might return to the international bond market as it eyes an offering of euro bonds.

“The Republic of the Philippines, rated Baa2 (stable) by Moody’s, BBB+ (stable) by S&P, and BBB (stable) by Fitch, has appointed BNP PARIBAS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Nomura, and Standard Chartered Bank as Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings in Asia, Europe and the United States commencing on April 19th 2021,” an announcement posted in Bloomberg on Monday said.

“A proposed 4Yr (year) and/or 12Yr and/or 20Yr Euro-denominated US SEC-Registered Senior Unsecured Benchmark bond offering may follow, subject to market conditions. The Notes are expected to be rated Baa2 by Moody’s, BBB+ by S&P, and BBB by Fitch,” the announcement said.

According to the announcement, the Philippines has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) and other documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the possible offering.

Last year, the Philippines was able to raise 1.2 billion euros from the three-year and nine-year eurodenominated global bonds.

The amount was used for budgetary support. The amount generated, which is about $1.33 billion or P67.68 billion, was an upsize of the initial 500-million-euro benchmark offering for each tenor.

The earlier three-year tenor was issued with a yield of 0.10 percent, allowing the government to print at a zero-percent coupon for a global bond with a spread of 40 basis points over the benchmark size.

For the nine-year tenor, the issuance achieved a coupon of 0.7 percent, tighter than the 0.875 percent in the previous eight-year euro bond issuance last May despite the longer tenor.