Philippine Savings Bank, the thrift banking unit of the Metrobank Group, said Thursday it raised P6.3 billion in an oversubscribed fixed-rate bond offering due to strong demand from investors.
PSBank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it decided to cut short the offer period for the maiden peso fixed-rate bond issuance to July 5, 2019 from July 17.
The bank raised P6.3 billion from the offering compared with the planned initial target issue size of P3 billion. The two-year peso fixed rate bonds were priced at 5.6 percent per annum with quarterly interest payments.
The bonds will be listed in Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. on July 24, 2019.
“We were overwhelmed by the market reception to our bond offering with strong interest from both institutional accounts and retail investors. In just five days, the total order book was four times oversubscribed allowing us to significantly upsize the transaction to P6.3 billion,” said PSBank president Jose Vicente Alde in a statement.
“This is solid proof of the trust placed in PSBank as an institution as well as the confidence of the market in the various business initiatives we have been undertaking to further the growth of the Bank,” he said.
The first tranche of the issuance was part of PSBank’s P40-billion funding program. The issue will give the bank an opportunity to gain access to long-term funding as it expands its consumer banking business. It also seeks to diversify its funding base.
Parties to the bond offering were Standard Chartered Bank as sole arranger and selling agent; Metrobank and First Metro Investment Corp. as other selling agents; Philippine Dealing and Trust Corp. as registry and paying agent of the issuance; Picazo Buyco Tan Fider and Santos as transaction counsel; and Development Bank of the Philippines as trustee.
PSBank remains one of the largest thrift banks in the country. PSBank posted a double-digit growth of 10.3 percent year-on-year in net income at P680.7 million in the first quarter 2019. The consumer loan portfolio expanded 6.8 percent year-on-year to P159.3 billion.