COUNTRY REPORT SINGAPORE(US$2.17bn) for business growth.
Bank of the Philippine Islands announced
last Wednesday it had approved a rights
issue of up to Ps50bn to support its growth
and strategic initiatives in the coming
years.
Terms of the rights issue, which will
comprise up to 567m shares, have yet to
be set. Ayala, BPI’s major shareholder, has
indicated its support for the issue.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Bank and Trust,
the country’s second largest lender in asset
terms, has also secured board approval for a
rights issue involving up to 820m shares.
Metrobank plans to raise up to Ps60bn,
according to people close to the deal.
Part of the proceeds will be used for the
acquisition of the remaining 20% equity
stake in Metrobank Card Corp.
The lender has mandated First Metro
Investment and UBS as joint global
coordinators and joint bookrunners.
SINGAPORE
DEBT CAPITAL MARKETS
› HDB MAKES FIRST VISIT OF YEAR
HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD on Wednesday
made its first visit of the year to the bond
market to sell S$515m (US$389m) of 10-
year senior unsecured notes.
The statutory body responsible for public
housing in Singapore priced the notes at a
fixed rate of 2.32%.
The offering was increased from a base
size of S$500m, but the bonds, which were
sold at par, dropped in secondary trading
on Thursday, with the opening bid at 99.5.
The bonds priced first thing on
Wednesday morning before opening for
subscription, and were faced with rising
Singapore dollar rates. The Singapore
10-year swap offer rate climbed 3bp on
Wednesday, and rose a further 3bp on
Thursday morning.
The notes, which will come off a S$32bn
multi-currency MTN programme, are
expected to score a Moody’s rating of Aaa,
in line with the issuer.
CIMB , DBS , Standard Chartered and UOB
were joint bookrunners.› GUOCOLAND RETURNS TO PERPSGUOCOLAND last Monday priced S$350m of
perpetual non-call five securities at par to
yield 4.60%, having tightened from initial
guidance of 4.85% area.
The Singapore property company did not
disclose order statistics, but a 20-cent rebate
for private banks indicated that such clients
were a key target.
The coupon will reset at the end of year
seven and every seven years thereafter to
the initial spread of 260.9bp over SOR. The
spread will step up 100bp if the notes arenot called at the end of year seven.
Frasers Centrepoint’s perp non-call five
securities, priced at 4.38% in January and
quoted around par, were used as a pricing
reference. The structure of FCL’s notes
differs slightly because those notes reset
and step up in year 10.
GuocoLand’s slightly higher yield
reflected that its senior bonds trade slightly
wide of FCL’s. Both issuers are considered
blue-chip property credits, but their notes
are not rated.
GLL IHT is the issuer and GuocoLand is
guarantor. The issue comes off a S$3bn
MTN programme.
DBS , HL Bank , HSBC , OCBC and Standard
Chartered were bookrunners.
GuocoLand has property operations in
Singapore, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. It
also has a stake in Eco World International,
which is focused on property in the UK and
Australia.
Its last perp, a S$200m non-call three,
was issued in 2013 at a reoffer yield of 4.7%
and was redeemed in 2016.› GOLDEN AGRI-RESOURCES RETURNSGOLDEN AGRI-RESOURCES on Wednesday priced
S$150m of three-year bonds at par to yield
4.75%, having tightened from 5% area.
The issue size was capped at S$150m,
though orders from 35 accounts amounted
to over S$350m.
Singapore accounts bought 97% of the
notes. Among investor types, 91% wereTender helps Philippines print inside curve
Bonds Sovereign prices dollar issue tighter than rating would implyThe REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES (Baa2/BBB/
BBB) completed the first Asian US dollar
sovereign bond offering of the year, making
deft use of a tender offer to price close to
better-rated China.
The sovereign priced a US$2bn 10-year
bond at par to yield 3.0%, tightening from
initial guidance of 3.3% area, and printing
inside its own curve.
That yield translated to 37.8bp over 10-
year US Treasuries, not far away from the
25bp spread that China achieved in its 10-
year trade in October. China is rated A1/A+/
A+, although it did not seek a rating for last
autumn’s issue.
That was much tighter than recent
sovereign issuer Mexico, rated slightly higher
at A3/BBB+/BBB+, managed to achieve
for its 10-year US dollar issue on January- Despite Mexico’s better ratings, its notes
priced at a yield of 3.802%, equivalent to
135bp over Treasuries.
Nomura had put fair value for the
Philippine new issue at around 3.15%, based
on its 5.5% 2026 bond, which was quoted
at a mid Z spread of 45bp, or 3.03%. That
meant that the Philippines printed well inside
its existing bond curve.
The sovereign simultaneously held a
switch tender for 14 of its outstanding dollar
bonds, with maturities between January 2019
and January 2037.
Of the new issue, US$1.25bn was allocated
to participants in the switch exercise and
US$750m was new money.
“The strong support that this 10-year
global bond float has received in the
international capital markets is a testament
to the deepening investor confidence in
the country’s new-found status under theDuterte presidency as one of the world’s
fastest-growing economies,” said Carlos G
Dominguez, the country’s Finance Secretary.
He said the proceeds from the issue and
from the recent TRAIN law would help fund
Duterte’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ programme
to modernise infrastructure and improve
competitiveness.
The TRAIN, or Tax Reform for Acceleration
and Inclusion, law was implemented on
January 1 and cut personal income tax, while
raising taxes on petrol, cars and sugary
drinks.
Citigroup (B&D) and Standard Chartered
were joint global coordinators for the new
bond offering and dealer managers for the
tender. The JGCs were bookrunners with
Credit Suisse , Deutsche Bank , Morgan Stanley
and UBS.
DANIEL STANTON