PH eyes euro bond next less than a month after issuing samurai debt papers

MANILA, Philippines—Only less than a month after it issued Japanese yen-denominated samurai bonds, the Philippines will tap the euro debt market next.

In an announcement on Monday (April 19), the Philippine government said meetings with fixed-income investors will be held in Asia, Europe and the United States starting April 19, after which it may soon issue euro-denominated securities “subject to market conditions.”

The Philippines was looking at selling tenors, or maturity periods, of four, 12, or 20 years.

The government hired BNP PARIBAS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Nomura, and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead managers and bookrunners.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon declined to give details on the possible offering volume and which tenors to pursue pending conclusion of the investor meetings.

But De Leon said the Philippines will venture into euro debt earlier than the US-dollar market since the government embarked on a dollar bond sale just last December.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III early this month said the Philippines will again issue US dollar-denominated global bonds to raise funds for 2021. In 2020, the Philippines ventured into dollar bonds twice.

Before March ended, the Philippines raised 55 billion yen (over P24 billion) through three-year samurai bonds, which fetched zero coupon, or zero interest but trades with deep discounts.

For 2021, external borrowings — offshore bond issuances and foreign loans from multilateral banks and bilateral development partners — had been programmed to reach P442.4 billion out of the P3.03-trillion total for the year.

TSB