Bank of the Philippine Islands plans to return to the international bond market this year to refinance part of or its entire maturing $600-million debt papers, a top executive said Monday.
BPI treasurer and head of global markets Dino Gasmen told reporters at the sidelines of the bank’s P20.3-billion bond listing ceremony at the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. they were planning to complete the dollar-denominated bond issuance in the second quarter of 2023.
Gasmen said the terms of the offering including size and tenor were being finalized as the bank continued to evaluate the interest rate environment.
“Nothing has been finalized, but we are sure that we will refinance maybe portion of it, or maybe the entire amount. We are going to work on it within the first quarter to decide what exactly what we want to do and execute it in the second quarter,” Gasmen said.
The last time BPI raised funds from the overseas bond market was in 2019 when it raised $300 million from the sale of ASEAN green bonds.
BPI on Monday also listed P20.3 billion worth of fixed-rate bonds called BPI Reinforcing Inclusive Support for MSMEs Bonds.
The bonds, with an initial size of P5 billion, was upsized to P20.3 billion as the offering was oversubscribed by over four times.
The bank said the net proceeds would be used to finance or refinance the business requirements of eligible micro, small and medium enterprises.
“We are grateful to our investors for their continued support and trust in BPI. We are also excited that the investments in the BPI RISE Bonds will help us empower micro, small, and medium enterprises to reach their full potential and succeed in their ventures,” said BPI president and chief executive Jose Teodoro Limcaoco.
The BPI RISE Bonds were issued under the bank’s P100-billion bond program. The bonds, which have a term of 1.5 years, bear an interest rate of 5.75 percent per annum.
BPI Capital Corp. and ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch served as joint lead arrangers of the offering. Jenniffer B. Austria
