Bank of the Philippine Islands, the fourth-largest lender in terms of assets, said it closed and signed a $400-million, three-year syndicated term loan facility that attracted a diverse group of Asian, European and American lenders.
BPI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Thursday it planned to utilize the facility to fund strong growth in loans and investments.
“The facility is the first of its kind for BPI in the US dollar syndicated loan market. Following several months of syndication and documentation, the facility generated strong interest and was heavily oversubscribed, prompting the bank to upsize the amount from $250 million to $400 million,” it said.
Original mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners were Australia New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd., Mizuho Bank Ltd. and Standard Chartered Bank.
Mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners were Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Hong Kong branch; Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Singapore branch; United Overseas Bank Ltd. acting through its offshore banking unit of Taipei branch; Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Hua Nan Commercial Bank Ltd. offshore banking branch; and Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. offshore banking branch.
BPI’s strong growth in loans was evident in the first half of the year. Total loans increased 18.6 percent to P904.38 billion as of end-June, driven largely by gains in corporate loans, which grew 20.4 percent.
Net income in the first six months jumped 35.6 percent to P12.67 billion year-on-year. Total revenues rose 20.9 percent to P35.20 billion, while net interest income increased 9.6 percent to P20.70 billion.
Non-interest income also climbed 41.7 percent to P14.50 billion, led by securities trading, bank fees and commissions, bancassurance and capital markets.
Operating expenses rose 14.4 percent to P17.31 billion, triggered by up-front collective bargaining related costs and accelerated spending in technology.