BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender controlled by the Sy Group, said Monday it started the public offering of P5-billion worth of peso-denominated fixed-rate ASEAN Sustainability Bonds as its third issuance under a P365-billion bond program.
“The net proceeds of the issue are intended to diversify the bank’s funding surces, and finance/refinance eligible assets under the bank’s Sustainable Finance Framework,” the bank said in a statement.
The bonds have a tenor of two years and a fixed rate of 2.90 percent yearly. Interest is payable quarterly, calculated on a 30/360 basis. The minimum investment amount is P500,000, with increments of P100,000.
“The offer period will run from Jan. 10 to Jan. 21, 2022, while the issue, settlement and listing date is set for Jan. 28, 2022. However, the bank reserves the right to adjust the timing of the offer [as appropriate],” it said.
Standard Chartered Bank is the sole arranger, while BDO Unibank, BDO Private Bank Inc. and Standard Chartered Bank are the selling agents of the proposed issue.
BDO Capital & Investment Corp. is the financial advisor of the proposed issue.
BDO’s earnings returned to pre-pandemic levels after it posted a 95-percent growth in net income in the first nine months of 2021 to P32.4 billion from P16.6 billion a year ago.
It surpassed the 2020 net income of P28.2 billion that was pulled down by pre-emptive provisions of P30.2 billion against potential delinquencies from the pandemic.
Gross customer loans outpaced the industry with a 5-percent year-on-year increase, while total deposits went up by 6 percent, driven by the 14-percent expansion in current account/savings account deposits that now comprise 85 percent of total deposits.
Non-interest income increased by 13 percent year-on-year, while trading and forex gains normalized to P2.8 billion.
Total capital base strengthened to P422.3 billion, with common equity tier 1 ratio at 13.8 percent, above the regulatory minimum.
The bank’s book value per common share went up to P94.76 as of end-September 2021 from P84.82 in the same period last year, for a 12-percent growth.
Return on average common equity in the first nine months improved to 10.72 percent from 5.97 percent in the same period a year ago.