Strong demand from small investors propelled a record P310.8 billion sale of three-year retail treasury bonds (RTBs) by the Bureau of the Treasury during a shortened, one-week offer period.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said P250 billion was new money on top of P60.8 billion generated from the switch offer also for three-year RTBs maturing on April 11.
In a memo to all government securities eligible dealers and selling agents on Tuesday (Feb. 4), De Leon said both the public and exchange offer periods were cut short to Feb. 4 instead of the original plan to sell and switch RTBs until Feb. 6.
The Treasury on Jan. 28 started to sell the RTBs maturing on Feb. 11, 2023 at a coupon of 4.375 percent, in multiples of P5,000.
As early as Tuesday morning, De Leon said she already expected to reach the Treasury target at the end of the day.
The latest issuance exceeded the P255.4 billion sold in 2017.
It was the government’s 23rd overall and the Duterte administration’s sixth RTB issuance.
De Leon had said the money raised from this onshore borrowing exercise will be used for the budgetary requirements of the government’s priority programs and projects.
For this RTB offering, state-run Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) were the joint lead issue managers.
The joint issue managers included BDO Capital and Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., First Metro Investment Corp., PNB Capital and Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp., and SB Capital Investment Corp.
The RTBs were sold online by DBP, Landbank, and First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp.
The other selling agents that made the RTBs available over-the-counter included Banco De Oro Unibank Inc., China Banking Corp., Citibank N.A., CTBC Bank (Philippines) Corp., East West Banking Corp., ING
Bank, Maybank Philippines Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Philippine Bank of Communications, Philippine National Bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Robinsons Bank Corp., Security Bank Corp., Standard Chartered Bank, and Union Bank of the Philippines.