BDO offers bonds, seeks to raise P5B

The country’s leading lender, BDO Unibank, is raising at least P5 billion from a new offering of local bonds, boosting its capability to lend to productive sectors of the economy.

The bonds will have a tenor of 2.5 years and will be priced at 4.408 percent, the bank said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

This follows BDO’s P35-billion fixed rate bond issuance in February 2019, and is part of continuing efforts to diversify its funding sources and support its lending activities.

This is a component of the P100-billion bond program approved by BDO’s board in August 2018.

The offer period started on Jan. 20 and will end on Jan. 24, with the issue date targeted for Feb. 3. However, BDO reserves the right to adjust the timing of the offer as needed.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. is the sole lead arranger and bookrunner for the issue, while BDO Unibank, BDO Private Bank Inc. and HSBC are the selling agents.

Interest on the bonds will be paid quarterly. The minimum investment is P100,000 with increments of P50,000.

More and more banks are tapping the local bond market, mostly to diversify their funding source. This was after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas eased regulatory requirements on bond issuance.

BDO is the country’s largest bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits and trust funds under management based. It also has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,400 operating branches and over 4,400 automated teller machines (ATMs) nationwide.

The bank also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as 20 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla INQ