The Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx) is maintaining its P400-billion corporate bond listing target this year as more companies are expected to tap the debt market on anticipation of lower interest rates in the second half of 2024.
PDEx president and chief executive Antonino Nakpil said in an interview at the sidelines of Ayala Land Inc.’s P6-billion bond listing Thursday that several banks would issue bonds in the second half of the year.
“We thought we would be adjusting our target by the middle of the year because the first half was weak. But we are maintaining our target,” Nakpil said.
“There are a lot that are starting to line up,” Nakpil said.
He said companies waiting for interest rates to come down began preparing to take action on positive market signals.
Corporate bond listings reached P183 billion so far this year.
Among the companies that announced plans to issue bonds in the second half are BDO Unibank Inc., which reportedly raised more than P50 billion from the issuance of ASEAN sustainability bonds and Bank of the Philippine Islands which is also in the process of raising at least P5 billion from the issuance of 1.5-year sustainability bonds.
Nakpil said, however, these banks are issuing short tenor bonds as they were still expecting bigger rate cuts.
He expects other large companies to issue three-, five- and seven-year fixed-rate bonds to support their big-ticket expansion plans.
Domestic corporate bond market issuances reached P209.33 billion in 2023, down 58.8 percent from the record P508.66 billion in 2022 due to macroeconomic environment.
Among the companies that listed bonds in the first half of the year were BDO (P63 billion), SM Prime Holdings Inc. (P25 billion), Filinvest Development Corp. (P10 billion), Bank of Commerce (P6.5 billion) and Development Bank of the Philippines (P8.75 billion).
