PH to raise at least $1B from bond sale

The Philippines on Wednesday started selling US dollar-denominated bonds to raise at least $1 billion to augment the budget and finance the protracted fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government’s last hurrah in offshore commercial borrowings for the year targeted a benchmark-sized issuance—usually about $500-700 million—for each of the two tenors of 10.5 and 25 years.

At the height of the lockdown in April, the Bureau of the Treasury also sold $2.35 billion in 10- and 25-year global bonds at record-low rates, which the government included in its COVID-19 war chest.

The Treasury had also issued euro bonds but did not sell renminbi-denominated panda and yen-denominated samurai bonds this year.

Settlement of the new global bonds will be on Dec. 10.

The Treasury said the proceeds would be used as budge­tary support.

Also on Wednesday, the Treasury fully awarded P30 billion in reissued three-year bonds at an average annual rate of 2.169 percent, below the previous auction’s yield and lower than the secondary market benchmark.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon attributed the rate decline to strong demand for the belly of the curve.

Bids for the IOUs with a remaining life of two years and nine months reached P68.5 billion, making the auction more than 2.2 times oversubscribed.

To date, this bond series had an outstanding volume of P148.9 billion. —Ben O. de Vera