First Metro Investment is Best Bond House in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - First Metro Investment Corp., the investment banking arm of the Metrobank Group, was recognized once again as the Best Bond House in the Philippines. In its Annual Country Awards for Achievement, Finance Asia, one of the region’s leading financial publications based in Hong Kong named First Metro as this year’s Best Bond House in the Philippines.

Finance Asia underscored First Metro’s dominance in peso-denominated corporate and government debt transactions in the country in the last 12 months. In the same period, First Metro has arranged fixed and floating rate note deals for a host of Philippine blue-chips, such as Smart Communications and PLDT, SM Prime, Manila Water, Aboitiz Power, as well as Meralco and Federal Land. One of the biggest deals in this award period arranged by the investment bank was the P200-billion domestic debt consolidation program for the government. First Metro was both joint deal manager and joint deal arranger on the transaction, which involved P184 billion of new benchmark 10- and 25-year bonds through a bond swap, the largest bond swap executed by the sovereign.

First Metro holds an aggregate 70 percent market share in peso-denominated corporate and government debt transactions. It continues to help the government and the private sector through debt and equity underwriting, arranging and syndicating large, long-term funding requirements, financial advisory, project finance and structured financial solutions.

“This award has proven once again our dominance in the domestic capital market and with this recognition, we will work harder to hone our craft. We will continue to reinforce our foothold as a leading bond house with key strengths in origination, structuring and deal execution,” First Metro president Roberto Juanchito Dispo said.