Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said it has raised $400 million through the issuance of a five-year dollar-denominated bond carrying a coupon rate of 5.25 percent.
The Reg S senior unsecured notes were issued by BPI under its $3- billion medium term notes program, the proceeds of which will be used for refinancing activity and general corporate purposes.
BPI said the notes are rated Baa2 by Moody’s.
The transaction is expected to settle on March 26, 2024.
“The 5-year notes were priced at US Treasury spread of T+105 basis points (bps) with a coupon of 5.25 percent, representing the tightest ever spread on a 5-year bond from a non-sovereign Philippine issuer, adding another milestone to BPI’s long list of achievements,” it said.
BPI said it announced the transaction mandate on March 18, and conducted a comprehensive investor marketing exercise involving a global investor call and a series of meetings covering investors across Hong Kong, Singapore, and London.
Bookbuilding was held the next day, with an initial pricing guidance (IPG) of T+140 bps area.
“Orderbooks saw strong momentum throughout the day, despite a week rife with global central bank policy meetings, with the final books standing at over $1.3 billion, as the Notes were 3.3 times oversubscribed,” BPI said.
“This allowed 35 bps of pricing compression from IPG to final pricing, even as the issue size was increased from the original indications of $300 million, to accommodate the strong oversubscription levels,” it added.
The fund raising attracted interests from investors in Asia (81 percent), Europe, Middle East and Africa (19 percent) and offshore US accounts.
“The notes were distributed to high quality fixed income accounts: 51 percent to fund managers, 29 percent to banks, 17 percent to private banks and financial institutions, and 3 percent to insurance,” BPI said.
The bank tapped BPI Capital Corp. as the sole global coordinator, while JP Morgan, Mizuho, Standard Chartered Bank and UBS were joint lead managers for the notes sale.