DOF to guarantee NDC bonds

The Department of Finance has agreed to guarantee a new bond float by the National Development Co. (NDC) to refinance its original P5 billion issuance that will mature in 2004.

According to Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the NDC is now studying a number of options on how to improve the new bonds.

Among them is lengthening the maturity of the bonds from five to seven years and liberalizing the use of the funds.

In the first bond issuance, the use of the proceeds was restricted to equity investments in large agricultural projects.

Under the liberalized terms, the proceeds may now be used for relending and not merely for equity, and can be used to fund small and medium enterprises.

The NDC, Roxas said, will issue the new bonds sometime this year. Apart from lengthening the maturity and liberalizing the use of the proceeds, Roxas said, the bonds would not contain any other special feature.

According to Roxas, it would be a straight-forward issuance. "It will just be plain vanilla," Roxas said.

The original P5-billion NDC bonds were issued under the P50-billion Economic Recovery for Agricultural Productivity (ERAP) bonds.

They have a five-year tenor and are set to mature in April 2004.

Roxas said now is the best time to refinance the bond issuance because of the prevailing low interest rates.

Treasury bill rates for the 91-day tenor has been brought down to six percent.