BDO Unibank Inc., the largest lender in the country led by the Sy Group, plans to issue peso-denominated fixed-rate sustainability bonds with a minimum aggregate size of P5 billion as its third issuance off its P365-billion bond program.
BDO said in a statement Monday it would use the net proceeds from the issue to diversify the bank’s funding sources and finance and/or refinance eligible assets as defined in its Sustainable Finance Framework.
“This is the first time that the bank will be issuing a peso-denominated sustainability bond to both institutional and retail investors. The bank had previously issued a $150-million green bond in 2017, with the International Finance Corp. as the sole investor,” it said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission earlier confirmed the qualification of the issue as an ASEAN Sustainability Bond, having complied with requirements under the ASEAN Sustainability Bond Standards and the SEC ASEAN Sustainability Bond Circular.
“The proposed issuance has an indicative tenor of two years and a minimum investment amount of P500,000, with additional increments of P100,000 thereafter. The offer period will be from Jan. 10 to 21, 2022, while the issue, settlement and listing date will be on January 28, 2022,” it said.
The bank said it reserves the right to update the terms and the timing of the issuance (as appropriate).
Standard Chartered Bank is the sole arranger of the proposed issuance, while BDO Unibank Inc., BDO Private Bank Inc. and Standard Chartered Bank are the selling agents of the proposed issuance.
BDO Capital & Investment Corp. is the financial advisor of the proposed issuance.
BDO is a full-service universal bank which provides a wide range of corporate and retail banking services. These services include traditional loan and deposit products, as well as treasury, trust and investments, investment banking, private banking, rural banking, cash management, leasing and finance, remittance, insurance, retail cash cards, credit card services and stock brokerage services.
BDO has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,500 operating branches and over 4,400 ATMs nationwide.
BDO ranked as the largest bank in terms of total resources, customer loans, deposits, capital and trust assets based on published statements as of Sept. 30, 2021.