PH aims to raise $750M in ’15 via offshore bond issuance

The government has programmed to borrow $750 million from foreign sources in 2015, most likely through overseas bond issuance, the head of the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.

“We will have $750 million external commercial funding for next year, so offshore issuance is an option,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said in a text message last Friday.

However, De Leon said plans to sell Philippine debt paper overseas had yet to be firmed up. “[There’s] no schedule yet,” she said.

Last week, Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said it was important to supply investors overseas with fresh Philippine debt paper “so they can maintain their access to our financial markets.”

He noted that it might be a good time for an overseas bond issuance as the share of the country’s foreign debt to gross domestic product had gone down.

The Philippines’ most recent foray into foreign debt markets was in January this year, when it issued 10-year benchmark bonds due in 2024 at 4.5 percent.

Prior to last January’s overseas bond issuance, the country sold debt paper to investors abroad in 2012.

Since the country’s coffers are awash in cash, the government had been largely tapping domestic investors.

The BTr this Tuesday will re-issue P25 billion worth of treasury bonds with a tenor of three years.

Early this month, the BTr made a full award of the P20 billion worth of treasury bills it auctioned off, as market appetite for short-term debt paper among local investors remained unaffected by an interest rate hike scenario in the United States.