PH named ‘most professional borrower’

THE PHILIPPINE government was hailed as this year’s most professional sovereign borrower in Asia in a fixed-income poll conducted by online financial publisher FinanceAsia.

The government was also named the top Philippine borrower in international debt markets.

“This is very encouraging news; it shows the market has its confidence firmly placed in us and our performance as a sovereign borrower. Especially in these turbulent times, reputation is everything,” Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said in a statement Wednesday.

Last year, the Philippines was likewise awarded as the region’s best borrower “due to its innovative execution of an accelerated one-day switch tender offer last January 2014, its first transaction as an investment grade sovereign,” the Department of Finance (DOF) noted.

In February, Purisima himself was cited as “finance minister of the year” by FinanceAsia. It was his fifth citation as among the best finance ministers in the region. Purisima had beaten the finance ministers of China, Japan and Singapore for the FinanceAsia citation.

Last month, the government’s domestic liability management exercise attracted about P388 billion in tender offers—P134 billion for benchmark bonds due 2025 and P254 billion for benchmark bonds due 2040.