PSBank bond issue warmly received, draws P6.3B in 5 days

PSBank head office

Thrift bank Philippine Savings Bank has raised P6.3 billion from a warmly-received maiden offering of local bonds.

This marks the first tranche of PSBank’s P40-billion fund-raising program as the bank builds up long-term funds to fuel the expansion of its consumer banking business. It also seeks to diversify its funding base.

The two-year peso fixed rate bond issuance was priced at 5.6 percent per annum with quarterly interest payments. The bonds will be listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. on July 24.

“We were overwhelmed by the market reception to our bond offering with strong interest from both institutional accounts and retail investors,” said PSBank president Jose Vicente Alde in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday (July 11).

“In just five days, the total order book was four times oversubscribed, allowing us to significantly upsize the transaction to P6.3 billion,”  Alde said.

The base offer for this issuance amounted to only P3 billion.

“This is solid proof of the trust placed in PSBank as an institution as well as the confidence of the market in the various business initiatives we have been undertaking to further the growth of the Bank,” Alde added.

Standard Chartered Bank acted as sole arranger and selling agent while PSBank’s parent bank Metrobank and First Metro Investment Corp. as other selling agents.

PSBank was recently given an issuer rating of PRS Aaa by local credit watcher Philippine Rating Services Corporation (PhilRatings), the highest rating on Philratings’ scale. A company rated PRS Aaa is deemed to have a “very strong capacity to meet financial commitments relative to that of Philippine corporates. /tsb