UnionBank’s debt issue upsized to P11B

Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) said a pioneering “digital peso” bond sale was swamped by investors, with the offer being upsized 11 times to the final amount of P11 billion.

The bonds, which have a tenor of 1.5 years and a fixed rate of 3.25 percent, were listed and made available for trading on Thursday.

“Despite the volatile rate backdrop, the robust participation from retail and institutional investors resulted to an order book eleven times its initial minimum offer size of P1 billion,” UnionBank said in a statement via the Philippine Stock Exchange. The debt sale was launched using the pilot blockchain technology-powered digital registry and depository platform of the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp.

UnionBank said they used the infrastructure developed by Singapore-based financial technology firm Hashtacs Pte. Ltd. or STACS. This was also interoperable with the traditional trading to clearing infrastructure of the Philippine Dealing Exchange Corp. or PDEx.

‘Positive disruption’

“This pioneering issuance serves as a building block in UnionBank’s journey to embrace digitization and positive disruption in the industry,” said Jose Emmanuel Hilado, UnionBank treasurer and head of global markets, said in the statement.

“I am confident that this will be recognized globally as a game changing digital initiative in the field of finance,” he added.

UnionBank said the bonds were issued from its P39 billion bonds program.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. and Standard Chartered Bank were hired as joint lead arrangers, bookrunners and selling agents.