Government eyes P3 billion from premyo bonds

MANILA, Philippines — The government is targeting to raise P3 billion from a planned issuance of one year prize or “premyo” bonds offering next month, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said yesterday.

In a text message to reporters, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the BTr is planning to launch the second tranche of its premyo bond offering next month.

Asked how much the government is looking to raise from this issuance, de Leon answered the target is P3 billion.

Earlier, de Leon said the BTr has already shelved its plans to issue panda and samurai bonds this year as the government is already awash in cash from domestic borrowings.

This leaves the BTr with its regular auctions and the planned premyo bond issuance for the rest of the year.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and de Leon had both hinted before that prizes for the second tranche would be bigger than the ones offered during the previous premyo bond issuance last year.

Last December, the BTr sold P4.961 billion worth of one-year premyo bonds to small investors, higher than the initial offer size of P3 billion.

Each P500 investment carried quarterly coupon payments, as well as a chance to win condominium units or house-and-lots, and as much as P1 million in cash prizes during quarterly draws.

Meanwhile, short-term government securities during yesterday’s auction fetched mixed results as rates for the 91-day and 182-day Treasury bills (T-bills) moved sideways, while the yield for 364-day debt papers remained steady.

The BTr fully awarded P5 billion worth of 91-day Treasury bills at an average rate of 1.086 percent, 0.2 basis point lower than the 1.088 percent recorded last week.

The auction was more than four times oversubscribed, with total tenders amounting to P21.87 billion.

The auction committee also made a full award of 182-day debt notes, which fetched an average rate of 1.597 percent, 0.1 basis point lower than 1.598 percent from a week ago.

Total tenders reached P21.632 billion, more than four times larger than the P5 billion offer size.

On the other hand, the average rate for the 364-day debt papers remained steady at 1.793 percent, prompting the BTr to fully award the P10 billion offering.