BDO shortens offer period for sustainability bonds

MANILA, Philippines — BDO Unibank Inc. has shortened the offer period for its third peso-denominated ASEAN sustainability bonds following strong demand from both retail and institutional investors.

In a disclosure to the local bourse, the bank said that the offer period for the fund raising activity that started on July 8 has been cut to July 16 instead of July 19.

BDO has yet to announce the amount raised, but it was originally targeting to raise at least P5 billion.

“The net proceeds of the issuance are intended to finance and/or refinance eligible assets as defined in the bank’s Sustainable Finance Framework and diversify the bank’s funding sources,” BDO said.

The latest ASEAN Sustainability Bonds have a tenor of 1.5 years with a coupon rate of 6.325 percent per annum. The issue, settlement and listing on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx) will be on July 24.

The bank has tapped ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch as the sole arranger, with BDO Unibank and ING as selling agents. BDO Capital and Investment Corp. is the financial advisor for the fund raising activity.

In January, BDO raised a record P63.3 billion from its second bond issuance of ASEAN sustainability bonds. The amount was almost 12.7 times the original size of P5 billion, as the offer period was shortened by a week amid the rapid build-up in orders from retail and institutional investors.

The Sy-led bank also successfully raised P52.7 billion in January 2022 via the maiden issuance of the peso-denominated ASEAN sustainability bonds.

BDO, the largest bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits and trust funds under management, has over 1,700 consolidated operating branches and more than 5,500 ATMs nationwide.

The lender’s net income rose by 12.2 percent to P18.5 billion in the first quarter from P16.5 billion in the same period last year on the back of sustained growth across its core businesses.