By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Philippine authorities have announced the list of foreign banks tapped as coordinators and bookrunners for its planned Euro bond offering but National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon remains mum on additional details.
“Cannot disclose yet. Have to see market appetite,” she said.
News reports said the Philippines has appointed Deutsche Bank and UBS as joint global coordinators for the planned debt issuance. These two, along with BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered were also appointed as bookrunners.
Treasury officials said they are considering the issuance of benchmark offer volume, or about USD500 million, worth of Euro bond as part of the government’s decision to diversity its securities investments.
This capital raising exercise was announced earlier than the planned renminbi-denominated Panda bond, a debt paper issued by a non-Chinese issuer in China.
“Just got approval for Panda issue yesterday,” De Leon told the Philippines News Agency (PNA) Thursday.
The approval was given by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), she said.
The Philippines plans to issue its second Panda bond in the first half of this year after it raised 1.46 billion renminbi worth of three-year Panda bond in March last year.
A non-deal roadshow in several areas in China was made by Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials last March to discuss the planned issuance this year.
De Leon earlier said they plan to issue a higher volume and more tenors for the planned Panda bond issuance this year.
Meanwhile, S&P Global has given the Philippines’ planned Euro bond issuance a ‘BBB’ rating, same as country’s long-term foreign currency rating.
“The notes represent direct, general, unconditional, unsecured, and unsubordinated obligations of the sovereign, and rank equally with the sovereign’s other unsecured and unsubordinated debt obligations,” it said.
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