Planned euro bonds get favorable ratings

MANILA, Philippines — Global credit rating agencies assigned stable ratings to the government’s proposed benchmark-size euro bond issuance.

S&P Global ratings announced yesterday that it has assigned a ‘BBB+’ long-term currency rating to the planned issuance, while Fitch ratings assigned a ‘BBB’ rating to the proposed issue.

“The Philippines intends to use the net cash proceeds from the sale of the global bonds for general purposes, including budgetary support,” said Fitch in a statement.

The Philippines is returning to the global market after successfully raising $500 million from its first ever zero coupon yen-denominated bond issuance last month.

This will then be the country’s second issuance in the foreign debt market this year.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said early this month that the government is also considering to sell dollar bonds “before rates skyrocket.”

The government has hired banks to arrange a series of investor meetings for its planned euro-denominated bond sale.

Appointed as lead managers and joint bookrunners   to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings in Asia, Europe, and United States were BNP PARIBAS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P Morgan, Nomura, and Standard Chartered Bank.

Proposed were tenors of four years, 12 years, and 20 years for the benchmark offer that is usually sized at $500 million.

The government last issued   1.2 billion worth of euro-denominated bonds last year at euro 600 million each for three-year and nine-year tenors.

The government plans to raise as much as $5.5 billion from offshore debt markets this year to finance its pandemic-response.