Treasury: 5.5-year RTBs for sale starting Nov. 16

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of the Treasury will start selling 5.5-year retail treasury bonds (RTBs) on Nov. 16 and plans to raise at least P30 billion during the rate-setting auction.

The government’s 26th overall and the Duterte administration’s ninth RTB issuance will also allow investors to switch their bond holdings of five- and 10-year debt paper maturing in January next year with the fresh RTBs.

The new IOUs due in 2027 will be sold for a minimum of P5,000 per bond and multiples thereof.

The RTB public offer and exchange period will be until Nov. 26. Settlement will be on Dec. 2.

Like previous offerings as well as the government’s recent foray into retail dollar bonds (RDBs), small investors can buy RTBs from the Treasury’s online ordering facility or through the mobile apps of Bonds.PH and the all-digital Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank).

The proceeds from RTB sales were usually injected into the budget; amid the prolonged pandemic, fund-raising was also intended for COVID-19 response.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon this week said that this latest forthcoming RTB issuance would not be “jumbo” in size unlike preceding offerings.

In March, the Treasury raised P463.3 billion from three-year RTBs. Last year it issued a record P516.3 billion in five-year RTBs dubbed “progreso bonds” to raise money for pandemic response and economic recovery programs.

While previous RTB offers attracted strong reception, De Leon said the Treasury “will have to close our eyes to tempting demand” to not exceed this year’s domestic borrowing program.

For 2021, the government had programmed to borrow a total gross amount of P3.07 trillion, of which locally sourced borrowings through treasury bills and bonds would account for the larger chunk of P2.49 trillion.

As of end-September, gross domestic financing climbed to P2.09 trillion from P1.71 trillion a year ago.

Due to the 11-day RTB offering, the Treasury cancelled the earlier scheduled auctions of P35-billion each in five- and seven-year T-bonds on Nov. 16 and 23, respectively.

JPV