Union Bank of the Philippines said Monday it raised P18.17 billion through the issuance peso-denominated fixed rate bonds, a dual tranche offering that received strong demand from both retail and institutional investors.
The initial offer was P1 billion each for the 1.5 years and 3 years bond series.
The 1.5-year Series F bonds due 2025 raised a total of P10.34 billion and carries an interest rate of 6.5625 percent a year while the 3-year Series G bonds due 2026 raised a total of P7.83 billion and carries an interest rate of 6.6800 percent.
Along with the new bond issuance, UnionBank also implemented the country’s first public non-sovereign bond exchange which extended to the holders of its P8.12 billion 2.750 percent Fixed Rate Series C Bonds due 9 December 2023 the option to swap their current bonds to new bonds.
A total P236.7 million worth of maturing bonds were exchanged for the new bonds, whose settlement date in Monday, 4 December, a day before the scheduled listing of the new bond series on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.
“Fuelled by our passion to address the needs of our customers, we introduced the Bond Exchange program to provide a reinvestment option for existing investors. We are grateful for the support of our investors as their confidence in the Bank allowed us to raise our largest Peso bond issuance to date.” said Johnson Sia, treasurer and head of global markets.
ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch and Standard Chartered Bank are the joint lead arrangers and bookrunners for the New Bonds. They are also the selling agents for the offering of the new bonds together with UnionBank.
