CORPORATE-ASEAN | MANILA- BDO offers Asean sustainability bonds
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SY-LED BDO Unibank Inc. on Tuesday launched the public offering of its second peso-denominated fixed-rate Asean sustainability bonds with a minimum aggregate issue size of P5.0 billion.
The 1.5-year bonds, which carry a coupon rate of 6.025 percent per annum, will be offered until January 22. The issue, settlement and listing date have been set for January 29.
Memento Maxima Digital MarketingProceeds will be utilized to diversify BDO’s funding sources and “finance and/or refinance eligible assets as defined in the bank’s sustainable finance framework,” the company said in a disclosure.
The minimum investment amount is P500,000, with additional increments of P100,000 thereafter.
“BDO reserves the right to amend the terms and the timing of the issuance as it deems necessary,” it added.
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) was tapped as the sole arranger of the proposed offer, with BDO and SCB as the selling agents and BDO Capital & Investment Corp. as the financial advisor.
“The bonds are securities exempt from registration under Section 9.1(e) of the Securities Regulation Code (SRC) and, as such, will not be registered under the SRC,” BDO noted.
In January 2022, the bank successfully raised P52.7 billion from the issuance of its first peso-denominated Asean sustainability bonds. Last year’s bond issue had a tenor of two years and a fixed rate of 2.9 percent per annum.
The Securities and Exchange Commission defines Asean sustainability bonds as specific-purpose bonds whose proceeds are exclusively used to “finance or refinance a combination of both green and social projects that respectively offer environmental and social benefits.”
In the first nine months of 2023, BDO booked a 35-percent growth in net income to P53.9 billion from P40 billion the previous year on broad-based growth across its core businesses.
As of end-December 2022, the bank had 1,650 operating domestic branches, over 4,600 automated teller machines, 640 cash deposit machines and eight self-service teller machines.
BDO shares on Tuesday rose by P1.30, or 0.98 percent, to P133.60 apiece amid a 0.14-percent uptick in the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.
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