Union Bank of the Philippines, the 10th largest lender in terms of assets, said Monday it increased the size of its senior notes due 2022 by $100 million from $400 million to $500 million on strong demand from foreign investors.
The notes are issued under Union Bank’s medium term note program, which was established on Nov. 14, 2017. The notes are rated “Baa2” or investment grade by global debt watcher Moody’s Investors Service and will be listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange.
“The proceeds of the notes will be used to refinance Union Bank’s existing liabilities, expand its funding base and for other general corporate purposes,” the bank said.
Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers and joint book-runners for the transaction.
Union bank earlier said the issuance followed a successful roadshow for Singapore and Hong Kong investors from Nov. 16 to 17, 2017.
“The issue was more than eight times oversubscribed, with orders reaching over $3.2 billion. Settlement will be on Nov. 29, 2017,” the bank said.
Union Bank said with a strong order book from the investors across Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the transaction represented the largest order book garnered by a Philippine bank issuer.
Earlier, Union Bank president and Edwin Bautista said they were on track of achieving their objective of becoming a “great retail bank.”
He said the bank remained among the most profitable banks in the industry even with the absence of trading gains. He said more than half of the bank’s revenues were now coming from the retail segment, “which underscored that customer businesses have successfully replaced our trading income of the past.”
Union Bank’s net income declined 21 percent in the first nine months to P6.39 billion from P8.14 billion a year ago on lower trading gains.
Excluding securities trading gains, the bank said earnings would have increased by 42 percent to P6.39 billion from P4.3 billion last year.
UnionBank’s loan portfolio expanded 20.2 percent to P265.9 billion in the first nine months, while total deposits grew 20.2 percent to P437.5 billion.
