BPI taps arrangers, dealers for offshore borrowing program

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has tapped the arrangers and dealers for its planned offshore borrowing under its $2 billion medium term note program.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), BPI said BPI Capital would serve as sole global coordinator, lead arranger and dealer for the program.

The listed bank has also appointed Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, ANZ, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, DBS, ING, Mizuho Securities, MUFG, SMBC Nikko, Standard Chartered Bank, and UBS as dealers of the planned fund raising activity.

Maria Theresa Marcial Javier, chief financial officer at BPI, earlier said the listed bank remains opportunistic in tapping the debt capital markets to supplement our funding requirements.

“We are very seriously looking at tapping the debt capital market in terms of additional bond issue and we will announce the details in due course,” she said.

Javier said the details of the planned fund raising activity within the year is still being finalized but the amount would definitely be below $500 million and lower than the amount raised last year.

“The size that we’re looking at is probably smaller than the $600 million issuance in 2018. So it’s probably smaller. But we will let you know. We’re just looking at some finer points and we’ll definitely be coming up with specific soon,” she said.

BPI has an outstanding $2 billion medium note program.

Last September, it raised $600 million via the issuance of five-year senior unsecured fixed rate Regulation S notes with a coupon of 4.25 percent to lengthen the maturity of the bank’s borrowings.

On the equity side, the bank has no immediate plans to raise more funds after its P50-billion stock rights offering in May last year.

BPI’s net income jumped by 24.6 percent to P13.74 billion in the first half from P11.03 billion in the same period last year after a strong performance in the second quarter.