Unionbank raises P18B from bond sale

MANILA  -Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines raised nearly P18.2 billion from the sale of bonds amid strong demand from retail and institutional investors.

The notes will be issued and listed on Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. on Dec. 5, the banking giant said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.

“This is the largest bond issuance by UnionBank from its P50-billion bonds program, which received strong demand from both retail and institutional investors,” UnionBank said.

“This enabled the bank to upsize the issuance to over nine times its initial minimum offer size of P2 billion for the two tranches,” it added.

The 1.5-year Series F bonds due 2025, which will pay an annual interest rate of

6.5625 percent, raised P10.34 billion while the three-year Series G bonds due 2026, which will pay an interest rate of 6.68 percent per year, raised P7.83 billion.

UnionBank also implemented the country’s first public non-sovereign bond exchange.

This allowed the holders of its P8.115 billion 2.750 percent fixed rate series C bonds, due December 9, 2023, to swap debt papers for the new bond issuance.

UnionBank said bondholders owning P236.7 million worth of debt papers participated in the exchange.

“Fueled by our passion to address the needs of our customers, we introduced the bond exchange program to provide a reinvestment option for existing investors,” Johnson L. Sia, treasurer and head of global markets, said in the filing.

“We are grateful for the support of our investors as their confidence in the Bank allowed us to raise our largest peso bond issuance to date,” he said.

UnionBank tapped ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch and Standard Chartered Bank as the joint lead arrangers and bookrunners for the offer. They were also the selling agents for the offering.