PH raises $860M from Japan bond sale

The Philippines raised some $860 million or 92 billion yen from the sale in Japan of yen-denominated samurai bonds across four tenors that all fetched yields below 1 percent.

In a text message, National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the samurai bonds were already priced on Friday.

For the three-year bonds, the government awarded 30.4 billion yen at a coupon of 0.18 percent.

It also sold 21 billion yen in five-year IOUs at 0.28 percent.

As for the seven-year debt paper, 17.9 billion yen worth were sold at 0.43 percent.

The government also awarded 22.7 billion yen in 10-year securities at 0.59 percent.

Settlement will be on Aug. 15.

It is the second straight year that the Philippines ventured into the samurai debt market to reverse an eight-year absence as the country’s last issuance prior to last year was in 2010.

However, this year’s samurai bond sale was smaller than last year’s 154.2 billion yen sold across three tenors.

The Bureau of the Treasury earlier planned to sell a minimum of $750 million and a maximum of $1 billion in samurai bonds.

In 2018, the Philippines issued 107.2 billion yen in three-year bonds at a coupon rate of 0.38 percent; 6.2 billion yen in five-year debt paper at 0.54 percent, and 40.8 billion yen in 10-year IOUs at 0.99 percent.

But De Leon had said that as the government underspent on public goods and services at the start of the year due to the delayed approval of the P3.7-trillion 2019 national budget, there remained ample cash to fund priority programs and projects—hence, there was no pressure to ramp up borrowings at the moment. —BEN O. DE VERA