Investment grade rating for PH global bond offer
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2019 16:29:43 +0000
The government’s plan to return to the offshore debt market has received an investment grade score from S&P Global Ratings.
The debt watcher, in a statement on Monday, said it “assigned its ‘BBB’ long-term foreign currency rating to the proposed benchmark-size U.S. dollar-denominated senior unsecured notes to be issued by the Republic of the Philippines.”
It noted that the debt papers — the first issuance by an Asian country this year — “represent direct, general, unconditional, unsecured, and unsubordinated obligations of the sovereign, and rank equally with the sovereign’s other unsecured and unsubordinated debt obligations.”
Details of the said global bond sale have yet to be announced but National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon has said that the government is planning to raise up to $1 billion from an issuance this month.
Reports on Monday said the Phillipines had begun marketing a 10-year US dollar bond issue..
Last year, the government successfully raised $2 billion via 10-year global bond issue, which received a tight spread of 37.8 basis points over the US Treasuries.
Of the $2-billion offering, $1.25 billion was allocated to participants of a switch exercise for 14 of the country’s outstanding dollar-denominated bonds maturing between 2019 and 2037.
The 2018 transaction marked the first time since 2014 that the government issued a 10-year dollar bond.
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