RCBC prices bonds, starts offer
RIZAL COMMERCIAL BANKING Corp. (RCBC) has set the coupon rate for its three-year fixed-rate ASEAN Sustainability bonds at 6.08% as it started the public offer period on Thursday.
The three-year bonds will be offered until March 27, unless adjusted by the bank, with the settlement and listing on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. scheduled on April 8, RCBC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
The bank is selling the notes at a minimum investment amount of P100,000 with additional increments of P10,000 thereafter.
“The funds to be raised from the offer will be used to finance or refinance, in whole or in part, the eligible green and social categories as described in the bank’s Sustainable Finance Framework,” RCBC said.
The notes will make up the ninth drawdown under the bank’s P200-billion bond and commercial paper program, which in 2022 was expanded from the P100 billion initially approved in 2019.
The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the bank’s application for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) label for the bond issuance on Feb. 23.
The bank mandated Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and RCBC Capital Corp. as joint lead arrangers and bookrunners for the transaction, while the selling agents are SCB and RCBC.
RCBC last tapped the domestic market in July last year, raising P12.21 billion from an offering of ASEAN Sustainability Bonds, well above the minimum issue size of P3 billion amid strong demand. The notes have a tenor of two years and six months and carry a coupon rate of 6% per annum. This brought total issuances under its peso fundraising program to P99.01 billion.
Meanwhile, the bank also raised $350 million from an offering of five-year sustainability bonds in January 2025. The notes were priced at 5.375% per annum and were issued out of its $4-billion medium-term note program and under its Sustainable Finance Framework.
RCBC’s net income rose by 11% to P10.6 billion in 2025.
Its shares climbed by 20 centavos or 0.84% to close at P24.10 each on Thursday. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
