The Philippines has raised $2.75 billion or around P132 billion from its sale of dollar denominated bonds and secured it at low coupon rates, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday, December 3.

The 10.5-year tranche was priced at 1.648%, while the 25-year tranche was pegged at 2.65%. The transaction is expected to settle on December 10.

Proceeds of the issuance will be for the government’s general purposes, including budgetary support during the coronavirus crisis.

Credit Suisse, Daiwa Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Bank, and UBS were Joint Bookrunners for the transaction.

This is the Duterte administration’s third foreign commercial borrowing this year, following the $2.35-billion dual tranche global bond offering in May and the €1.2-billion bond offering in January.

“The success of our third offering this year in the international capital markets underpins the international investor community’s recognition of the Philippine economy’s strong fundamentals despite the global economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

The Philippines, so far, has borrowed P550.3 billion from multilateral lenders and offshore commercial markets.

As of end-September, outstanding public debt was at P9.37 trillion, 18.5% higher than the same period in 2019. – Rappler.com