Gov’t raises P25B from T-bonds sale

MANILA  -The Philippine national government raised P25 billion as planned from a Treasury bond offering ahead of the Monetary Board policy meeting on May 18 that is widely expected to result in a pause of interest rate hikes.

The auction of 13-year T-bonds held on May 16 followed that of T-bills on Monday where a full award of short-term securities offered was achieved after 12 auctions of partial awards.

Such results support a statement of National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon that a planned issuance during this second quarter of US dollar-denominated retail T-bonds was pushed for later this year as the national government was still “oozing with cash.”

READ: Gov’t considering issuance of $2B-$3B in RTBs

De Leon told reporters this was so especially considering that T-bond auctions have been resulting in full award of the offerings.

She said there were also preparations still being made that would help Filipinos who are based overseas to more easily open US dollar bank accounts and thus be able to access the RTBs.

She added that the timing of the RTB issuance was at the moment fluid, “a moving target.”

“The aspiration is to raise $2 billion this time, since we did $1.5 billion” from the most recent global RTB outing, De Leon said.

REISSUED BONDS

On Tuesday, the securities auctioned off were reissued T-bonds that were originally issued last April 20, and fetched an average rate of 5.854 percent.

The new average was 39 basis points (bps) lower than the 6.25 percent coupon rate set on the T-bonds’ first issuance.

“The auction was 2.7 times oversubscribed with total tenders reaching P68.4 billion,” the Bureau of the Treasury said in a statement.

“With its decision, the [auction] committee raised the full program of P25 billion, bringing the total outstanding volume for the series to P44.5 billion,” the BTr added.

In the May 15 auction for the T-bills, the committee was able to raise a total of P15 billion while keeping average rates lower.

READ: T-bill rates decline; gov’t makes full award

The average rate on the benchmark 91-day T-bills decreased by 1.7 basis points (bps) to 5.874 percent from 5.891 percent last week.

For the 182-day T-bills, the new average yield was 11.8 bps lower at 5.991 compared to the previous 6.109 percent.

Likewise, the average rate for the 364-day T-bills went down by 18.3 bps to 6.028 percent from 6.211 percent.

“The auction was four times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P59.6 billion,” the BTr said.