Union Bank of the Philippines, one of the country’s largest lenders, said Friday it raised $358 million through a three-year syndicated loan facility.
It said that despite the prevailing market uncertainty and volatility, the syndicated financing was well-received, with an overwhelming response during syndication, and attracted 15 lenders.
The facility was upsized to $358 million, or almost 2.5 times the original launch size of $150 million.
UnionBank said the proceeds would be used to refinance maturing US dollar loan and existing US dollar bonds and fund its general corporate purposes.
“This shows how UnionBank continues to gain the market’s confidence in our strategic priorities. After our P11-billion digital bond issuance in June, which was 11 times oversubscribed, we now have successfully executed this $358 million syndicated loan facility, which is almost 2.5 times upsized,” UnionBank treasurer and head of global markets Johnson Sia said in a statement.
“This enables us to better manage our financing requirements and continue executing our strategy as the market remains volatile,” he said.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. and MUFG Bank, Ltd. were the mandated lead arrangers, underwriters and bookrunners of the transaction.
UnionBank, the financial arm of the Aboitiz Group, reported a net income of P10.1 billion in the first three quarters, translating into a return on equity of 10.4 percent.