BPI’s sizzling peso bonds fetch P15.3B in sales

Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has raised P15.3 billion from its first local bond foray for the year, upsizing the issuance by over five times the original to take advantage of strong market demand.

The fixed-rate bonds carry an interest rate of 4.2423 percent per annum for a tenor of two years. The issuance exceeded BPI’s original target of P3 billion.

“Our bonds offer an attractive return to investors. The funds raised put us in a better position to provide financial services to more clients: individuals, small and medium businesses and big corporations to fund a housing project, a new car, or their businesses,” BPI treasurer Dino Gasmen said Friday.

Gasmen attributed the successful bond offering to the “unwavering trust and support of both retail and institutional investors to BPI.”

The new bonds were listed on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. on Friday.

This marks BPI’s second peso bond transaction, following its landmark P25 billion bond issuance in 2018.

BPI Capital Corp. and Standard Chartered Bank’s Philippine Branch served as the joint lead arrangers of the bonds. BPI Capital was sole selling agent while SCB was participating selling agent.

Banks tap the bond market mostly to diversify their funding sources. Using this mechanism, they are able to reduce reliance on deposits and gain more access to long-term funding to allow them to fund more projects, including infrastructure assets.

In the latter part of 2019, BPI unveiled a new P100-billion bond and commercial paper offering program to support expansion plans. This was an update from the earlier approved P50-billion bond program, bulk of which had been used up.