BPI looking to issue dollar bonds next quarter

BANK of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is looking to issue dollar bonds in the second quarter to help refinance $600 million in debt papers maturing this year.

“I think we’re done on the peso side. We are looking at possibly doing a dollar bond sometime later this year as we have a dollar bond that’s maturing. So, we’ll be just refinancing that,” BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Teodoro “TG” K. Limcaoco said in an interview with ANC on Monday.

Mr. Limcaoco said the size of the dollar bond offer has yet to be decided.

“Currently, we’re looking at all our options because we could do it via club loan or we could do it via another bond issuance,” BPI Treasurer and Global Markets Head Dino R. Gasmen told reporters on the sidelines of the listing event for its recent peso bond issuance on Monday.

“We’re still deciding whether we will go with a fixed or a floater, or a mix of the two. We’re also deciding what the tenor will be. Nothing has been decided yet, but we are sure that we are going to refinance maybe a portion of it, maybe the whole thing,” Mr. Gasmen added.

He said the offering could be done in the second quarter.

“Last offshore [issuance] was 2019 when we issued the Swiss bonds, which has since matured. So, after the $600 million, there’s another $300-million bond maturing next year, also in September,” he said.

The bank on Monday listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. its latest issuance of BPI Reinforcing Inclusive Support for Micro, Small, and Medium enterprises or RISE Bonds due in 2024.

BPI raised P20.3 billion through the offering of peso fixed-rate bonds, more than four times the original P5-billion issue size.

The papers, which have an interest rate of 5.75% per annum, were offered from Jan. 9 to 13. The offer period was initially set to end on Jan. 20, but the lender closed it early amid strong demand.

BPI booked a net income of P10.1 billion in the third quarter of 2022. This brought the bank’s bottom line for the first nine months of 2022 to P30.5 billion, backed by higher revenues and lower provisions for loan losses.

Its shares fell by 10 centavos or 0.09% to end at P110 apiece on Monday. — A.M.C. Sy