BDO raises P52.7B from green bonds

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s largest lender, BDO Unibank, has raised P52.7 billion from its landmark green bond offering debut—by far the largest private sector debt securities issuance carved out of the Philippines to date.

The offering of peso-denominated bonds — with a tenor of two years and a fixed rate of 2.9 percent per annum —was oversubscribed by more than 10 times the original offer of P5 billion on the back of strong demand from retail and institutional investors, BDO disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday (Jan 28).

This was achieved despite the offer period having cut short to close on Jan. 19 instead of Jan. 21.

“This is a new milestone for the bank as it exceeds its previous record of P40.1 billion for a single bond issuance, and by far the largest issuance for any Philippine financial institution or company,” BDO said.

Net proceeds are intended to diversify the bank’s funding sources, as well as finance or refinance eligible assets under BDO’s sustainable finance framework.

Standard Chartered Bank was the sole arranger, while BDO, BDO Private Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were the selling agents. BDO Capital & Investment Corp. acted as financial advisor.

TSB