BTr eyes issuance of $500M in bonds

The Bureau of the Treasury is firming up a formal application to regulators for the issuance of about $500 million in bonds, possibly early next year.

“We’re already preparing for the request because it would be early next year,” National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan said in a chance interview Monday, “Our normal timetable is the first quarter, so we give ourselves that timeframe.”

A foray into the global bond market will entail approval of the President as well as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Monetary Board.

For 2017, the government programmed $500 million in commercial borrowing on top of $1.5 billion in project and program loans as well as official development assistance from multilateral lenders, Tan said.

Asked if the government would push through with an offshore bond sale right after an expected US Federal Reserve rate hike before this year ends, Tan replied: “It depends on how the market reacts after that. So far, [jitters due to the looming Fed hike have] been lingering on so hopefully the market as a whole or in general factored that it in already [early next year],” Separately, the Treasury on Monday sold P17.91 billion in T-bills out of the P20-billion offering as it capped the issuance of the one-year debt paper due to rising rates.

The Treasury fully awarded P8 billion in 91-day IOUs at 1.281 percent, an average rate down from 1.321 percent a month ago, as well as P6 billion in 182-day debt paper at 1.505 percent, up from 1.439 percent last month.