PH-proposed euro bond bags investment rating

THE national government’s proposed benchmark-sized euro bond offering has secured investment grade ratings by international debt watchers.

In a statement released on Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings said it assigned a “‘BBB+’ long-term foreign currency rating to the proposed benchmark-size euro-denominated senior unsecured notes to be issued by the Philippines (BBB+/ Stable/A-2).”

Moody’s Investors Service, meanwhile, said, it “assigned a senior unsecured rating of Baa2 to the eurodenominated bond offering by the government of the Philippines.”

The credit rater added that the proceeds from the bonds are intended for general purposes, including budgetary support.

On Monday, the Bureau of the Treasury announced that it is marketing the sale of four-year and/or 12-year and/or 20-year euro-denominated bonds.

It has appointed BNP Pariba, 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, which commenced on April 19.

In January last year, the national government was able to raise 1.2 billion euros from its last doubletranched euro bond offering.

The amount generated — about $1.33 billion, or P67.68 billion — was an upsize of the initial 500-million-euro benchmark offering for each tenor. Oversubscription peaked at 3.58 times, or more than 4.3 billion euros.

The three-year tenor was issued with a yield of 0.10 percent, allowing the government to print at a zeropercent 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.