MANILA, Philippines — Bank of the Philippine Islands, the third-largest lender in terms of assets, said Wednesday its offering of $300 million in senior unsecured fixed-rate Asean green bond was more than four times oversubscribed due to strong demand from investors.
BPI said in a statement the offering was a drawdown under its $2-billion medium-term note program.
“The bonds were priced at 99.641 with a re-offer yield of 2.577 percent. The bonds will carry a coupon of 2.500 percent per annum, payable semiannually, and will have a final maturity date of Sept. 10, 2024,” it said.
“The offering was over four times over-subscribed, with the order book allocated predominantly to Asia, and the rest to Europe,” BPI said.
Over half of the offering was allocated to asset managers and fund managers, around one-third to banks, financial institutions and private banks, and the remainder to insurance companies, pension funds and other investors. The transaction is expected to settle on Sept. 10, 2019.
Upon issuance, the bonds will comprise the first US dollar-denominated Asean green bond issued by a Philippine bank, the lowest coupon and yield ever paid for a US dollar-denominated bond from the Philippines and the lowest credit spread ever paid by a Philippine bank.
“The net proceeds from the bonds will be used for the financing and/or re-financing, in whole or in part, of “green” eligible projects, as further described in BPI’s Green Finance Framework,” it said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission earlier confirmed that the bonds complied with the requirements under the Asean Green Bonds Circular and as such are qualified to be issued under the Asean Green Bond label.
BPI Capital is the sole global coordinator for the transaction while BPI Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Mizuho Securities and UBS are the joint lead managers and book-runners for the transaction.