Bank of the Philippine Islands has brought the corporate bond market to the P1-trillion mark after listing P25 billion worth of bonds.
The issue is BPI’s inaugural fixed rate bonds listed with Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. The bonds have a tenor of 1.25 years and a coupon rate of 6.7970 percent a year.
The listing also brings the total bonds listed by the Ayala Group to P203.13 billion, which now makes up about 20 percent of the bond market today.
BPI president and chief executive Cezar Consing said the sale of the bonds was a significant validation of the confidence of investors in the bank and the economy despite the challenges in all financial asset classes globally.
“This speaks to the strength and drawing power of BPI. More importantly, it speaks to our commitment to our country. The Philippines is on the move and BPI is, as we have always done, stepping up to finance our country’s growth,” he said.
The order book exceeded P38 billion.
PDEx president Antonio Nakpil said the listing signified several other milestones. “BPI is listing the largest single bond issue ever to be listed in PDEX. The listing also makes 2018 hold the record for the highest volume of listings in a single year at P210 billion, exceeding last year’s figure of P207 billion,” he said.
“This listing of P25 billion is the 25th listing of the year. Strangely coincidental, but this is really quite a distance from the 2008 year-end figure of P10 billion, and for those interested, marking a compounded average growth rate of 58.49 percent for the past 10 years,” he added.
Ayala Corp. and Ayala Land Inc. were the first to list bonds amounting to P10 billion in 2008.
“BPI’s listing marks another resounding success for the recently launched bank bond framework, enabled through the collaborative work of regulators, PDEx and the market. It looks we’re off to a very good start. BPI’s sizable issuance demonstrates that bank bonds meet an important need for our banks and provide an attractive investment option for Philippine investors,” Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Ephyro Luis Amatong said.