Amid strong demand from small investors, the Bureau of the Treasury sold a record P310.8 billion in three-year retail treasury bonds (RTBs) during the shortened, one-week offer period.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said P250 billion were new money while P60.8 billion were generated from the switch offer.
In a memorandum to all government securities eligible dealers and selling agents on Tuesday, 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 the 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.
As early as Tuesday morning, De Leon said they already expected to reach their 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 that the money raised from this onshore borrowing exercise would 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 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. INQ