PNB lists bonds worth P13.87B

Tycoon Lucio Tan-led Philippine National Bank ((PNB) has boosted its lending machinery with proceeds from a P13.87-billion local bond debut and a $250-million new syndicated loan facility.

PNB listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. on Wednesday its maiden fixed rate peso bonds after a well-received offering.

The bonds 2021 were priced to yield 6.25 percent a year.

The offering was oversubscribed by three times the base size of P5 billion. PNB’s 711 branches brought in 6,200 investors to subscribe to the offering.

PNB president Wick Veloso said the high demand for the initial issue was a testament to investors’ strong confidence in PNB and the country’s economic stability.

“Over the past century, PNB has been very active in offering investment opportunities to customers. Aside from business expansion, the bond issuance is part of our efforts to diversify our funding sources to meet the financial needs of our growing customer base,” he said.

“We look forward to tapping the capital markets in a variety of formats, as we come up with new products to offer to our investors, and embark on a safe aggressive growth,” he said.

British banking giant Standard Chartered acted as sole arranger and bookrunner for the issuance.

Acting through its Tokyo branch, PNB separately raised $250 million from a three-year syndicated term loan facility with a large group of international and regional Japanese banks.

In a press briefing, Veloso said proceeds from these fund-raising activities would help fund the bank’s lending activities.

Later this year, PNB also plans to raise around P12 billion in fresh equity from the sale of new shares to existing shareholders.

PNB’s total resources breached the P1-trillion mark as of end-March. The bank also reported a consolidated net income of P1.9 billion for the first three months, 30 percent higher compared to the period last year. This was driven primarily by improvements in net interest income and trading and foreign exchange gains.