PNB eyes $300 million in return to offshore debt market

MANILA, Philippines — Lucio Tan-led Philippine National Bank (PNB) is looking to return to the offshore debt market this year to raise at least $300 million from the issuance of dollar bonds.

The offer, with an option to upsize, was approved by the bank’s board of directors on May 24, the lender said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Its board also approved the updating of the bank’s euro medium-term note program to $2 billion from $1 billion previously.

In June 2019, PNB raised $750 million from the offshore debt market via the issuance of fixed rate senior notes, with the fund raising activity heavily oversubscribed.

The bank was originally raising at least $300 million to beef up its capital base and bankroll its expansion program but the order book reached $3.25 billion.

Approximately 75 percent of the notes were allocated to Asian investors while 25 percent were earmarked for investors from Europe, further diversifying and deepening PNB’s investor base.

Over 200 accounts participated in the transaction. Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners.

The bank has also raised P13.87 billion via the maiden offering of fixed-rate peso-denominated bonds in May 2019.

The two-year bonds due 2021 were three times oversubscribed as the original volume of the issuance was only P5 billion.

The bank has a peso bond and commercial paper program amounting to P100 billion.

PNB booked a 10.4 percent increase in earnings to P5.31 billion in the first quarter from P4.81 billion a year ago, boosted by core business growth and lower credit provisions.