The Bureau of the Treasury’s treasury bills auction ended with mixed results as investors sought higher yields for the 182-day IOUs, prompting the auction committee to make a partial award for the said tenor while fully awarding bids for the 91-day and 364-day securities.
The auction was oversubscribed with total bids reaching P56.1 billion, more than twice the P20 billion offering.
“I think it’s within our expectation, given that we have a huge maturity this week. The auction is two times oversubscribed. And now we’re able to fully-award the 91-day, it’s lower than BVAL (Bloomberg Valuation), even lower than the rates submitted by the banks last week. So, except for the 182-day which we partially awarded, because… the committee thought that it’s a bit high, higher than the average last time and also the BVAL today. But for both one-year and 91-day, we fully awarded,” Sharon Almanza, deputy treasurer, said after the auction at the agency’s office in Manila yesterday.
“There’s pronouncement already by the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) that they will be maintaining the rates. So the market is waiting on the sidelines. We try to cap it (the rate for the 182-day) well within the BVAL,” Almanza added.
The 91-day paper fetched a rate of 3.168 percent, 17.3 basis points (bps) higher than the previous yield of 2.995 percent.
Tenders for the said IOU reached P18.45 billion, more than twice oversubscribed, with a full award of P8 billion.
The rate for the 182-day securities was capped at 3.249 percent, 5.1 bps up versus the previous rate of 3.198 percent.
A partial award of P3.99 billion was made, versus the P6 billion offering. Tenders amounted to P12.74 billion.
Lastly, the one-year debt paper’s average stood at 3.501 percent, 1.2 bps down from the previous 3.513 percent.
Demand was more than four times the fully awarded amount of P6 billion, with tenders amounting to P24.93 billion.
Meanwhile, Almanza said the government will be launching its planned prize bonds issuance “very soon.”
The bonds, with a tenor of one year, has a volume of at least P3 billion.
The fundraising activity will be intended for individual investors, who will have a chance to win cash and non-cash prizes.
Almanza said the non-cash component will be discussed during the launch, while one winner every quarter will have the chance to win P1 million each.
“We got the approval from the Secretary (of Finance) and we will be announcing soon,” she said.
Almanza said there are six joint coordinators: Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, Philippine National Bank, China Banking Corp., BDO Unibank Inc. and First Metro Investment Corp.
Asked about the offer period, Almanza said: “I’m not sure, I don’t have the details but I think it will be longer than our usual RTB (retail treasury bond), because we want really the retail investors to be able to get (invest).”
