MANILA – The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) awarded PHP120.764 billion worth of five-year retail treasury bond (RTB) during the rate-setting auction on Tuesday.
It offered the debt securities for PHP30 billion and bids reached PHP183.44 billion.
The coupon rate of the debt paper, which will be issued on March 4, 2022, stood at 4.875 percent.
The offer period is scheduled from February 15 to 28, but the BTr said this still depends on whether “the subscription has reached a level deemed sufficient by the BTr.”
“Auction showed strong interest in RTB. Coupon penciled in rate liftoff and emerging higher inflation risk,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told journalists in a Viber message after the auction.
She said the rate hikes and higher inflation factors pertain to developments in the US and not the Philippines.
In her speech during the launch of the 27th tranche of the RTB, streamed over the BTr’s Facebook page, de Leon said 75 percent of the government’s programmed PHP2.2-trillion borrowing program for this year will be sourced from the domestic market.
“By maintaining a bias towards domestic sources of funding will not only protect the government from foreign exchange risks but more importantly, during this time, we can take advantage of the BSP’s (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) support to maintain an accommodative monetary stance in addition to financing the government’s recovery, resilience, and emergency programs,” she said.
De Leon said proceeds of the fundraising activity will also be used to finance the government’s massive infrastructure program “aimed at maximizing economic efficiency and contribute to achieving the GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 7 to 9 percent.”
RTBs are debt securities intended for small investors since the minimum placement is PHP5,000.
Since the pandemic started in 2020, BTr has increased investors’ options on where to invest in the government-issued paper.
On top of the lead issue managers, namely the government financial institutions (GFIs) Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), and select issue managers, which this year include BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital, Chinabank Capital Corporation, First Metro Securities Brokerage Corporation, and Union Bank of the Philippine (Unionbank), BTr is also offering the debt paper through its website, www.treasury.gov.ph, the Bonds.PH mobile app, and the digital-only Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank).
The BTr, during the same period of the RTB offer, is also conducting exchange offers for holders of bonds maturing on March 14, 2022 (FXTN 20-02) and July 4, 2022 (FXTN 03-24).
De Leon said RTB issuance “has truly become a significant feature of BTr’s savings mobilization program not only because this makes investing in government securities easily available to investors but more importantly allows for Filipinos all over the world to contribute to the funding of the national government’s key programs.”
She said BTr was able to raise over PHP832.3 billion through the two RTR issuance in 2021.
“With its growing demand and success through the years, the retail treasury bond now account(s) for more than 30 percent of our outstanding government securities,” she added. (PNA)