BDO raises P52.7 billion from bond offering

BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender controlled by the Sy Group, said Friday it raised P52.7-billion worth of peso-denominated fixed-rate ASEAN Sustainability Bonds under its P365-billion bond program amid robust demand.

BDO said in a statement the raised amount was more than 10-times the original offer of P5 billion on very strong demand from retail and institutional investors.

“This was achieved despite the offer period being shortened from Jan. 21, 2022 to Jan. 19, 2022. This is a new milestone for the bank as it exceeds its previous record of P40.1 billion for a single bond issuance, and by far the largest issuance for any Philippine financial institution or company,” it said.

This is the bank’s first issuance of peso-denominated sustainability bonds. The issue, settlement and listing date was set on Jan. 28, 2022.

The bonds have a tenor of two years and a fixed rate of 2.90 percent per annum. Interest is payable quarterly, calculated on a 30/360 basis.

“The net proceeds of the issue are intended to diversify the bank’s funding sources, and finance/refinance eligible assets under the bank’s Sustainable Finance Framework,” it said.

Standard Chartered Bank was the sole arranger, while BDO Unibank, BDO Private Bank Inc., and Standard Chartered Bank were the selling agents of the issue. BDO Capital & Investment Corp. was the financial advisor.

BDO is a full-service universal bank which provides a wide range of corporate and retail banking services. These services include traditional loan and deposit products, as well as treasury, trust and investments, investment banking, private banking, rural banking, cash management, leasing and finance, remittance, insurance, retail cash cards, credit card services, and stock brokerage services.

BDO has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,500 operating branches and over 4,400 ATMs nationwide. It also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as 14 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

BDO ranked as the largest bank in terms of total resources, customer loans, deposits, capital, and trust assets based on published statements of condition as of Sept. 30, 2021.

BDO said net income reached P32.4 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, up from P16.6 billion a year ago, on the bank’s resilient business franchise and normalized provisions.

Earnings normalized to pre-pandemic levels and showed stable quarter-on-quarter business performance with loan growth turning positive.

Gross customer loans outpaced the industry with a 5-percent year-on-year increase while total deposits went up by 6 percent, driven by the 14-percent expansion in current account/savings account deposits that comprised 85 percent of total deposits. Non-interest income also increased 13 percent, while trading and foreign exchange gains normalized to P2.8 billion.