PNB secures $150-M loan

Philippine National Bank (PNB) returned to the debt market for the first time in 15 years and successfully closed a three-year loan this week.

In a statement, PNB said it took out a three-year syndicated loan facility with a diverse group of international and regional banks worth $150 million. Standard Chartered Bank acted as sole coordinating bank and fully underwrote the transaction.

“This marks PNB’s return to the syndicated loan market … the last being in 1998, and received overwhelming interest from the market,” the bank told the local bourse.

“The diversity of the syndicate of lenders is an affirmation of the growing international market appetite for assets from the Philippines,” it added.

The transaction, which was oversubscribed 1.5 times, attracted total commitments of $220 million at close of syndication, with lending commitments received from 10 regional and international banks.

CTBC Bank Co., Ltd. Singapore, ING Bank N.V., Manila Branc, KDB Asia Limited/The Korea Development Bank and United Overseas Bank Limited joined Standard Chartered Bank acted as subunderwriters, mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, while HSBC also joined the facility as mandated lead arranger at close of senior syndication.

In general syndication, the facility also drew strong interest from Middle Eastern banks like National Bank of Kuwait SAKP Singapore branch and BBK BSC, who came in as lead arrangers together with Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Hong Kong branch.

The Export Import Bank of the Republic of China participated as an arranger in the facility.

“The success of the transaction is a strong acknowledgment of the capital market’s confidence in the credit strength of the bank,” PNB said.

Last year, Lucio Tan’s PNB had a net income of P5.5 billion, reflecting a 5-percent increase from that of the previous year despite the challenging conditions in the local financial markets that led to a substantial decline in the bank’s trading gains by 72 percent to P1.3 billion.