Gov’t all set for global bond offer
THE GOVERNMENT is set for a planned $2-billion global bond offer involving an equal dose of new money and a liability management segment, an official of the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
“The size of the transaction is $2 billion: $1 billion in new money and $1 billion for liab[ility management],” Deputy Treasurer Ma. Sharon P. Almanza told reporters late Thursday when asked for updates on the planned Republic of the Philippines (ROP) bond offer, even as she declined to disclose the tenor.
She said it is only a matter of time before the offer is launched as the Treasury has secured necessary approvals from the Monetary Board and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, among others.
“So we would just line the issuance,” she added.
“I think we are almost ready for the launch of the ROP, but depending on the market conditions.”
SECOND GLOBAL BOND UNDER DUTERTE
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III had said last week that the planned offer will “happen between now and February.”
At the same time, Mr. Dominguez told reporters last Thursday that the sale would still be “depending on market conditions.”
In January 2017, the government of President Rodrigo R. Duterte entered into a similar $2-billion deal with 25-year tenor. It raised $500 million in new money then, while swapping some $1.5 billion as part of the government’s debt-liability management exercise.
The government plans to borrow a total of P888.23 billion this year, of which P176.27 billion — nearly a fifth — will be sourced from foreign markets.
The 2018 full-year financing program is 22.05% more than the upwardly adjusted P727.74-billion program for 2017.
The government borrows to pay maturing debt and help plug its fiscal deficit, which is pegged at equivalent to three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) until 2022 — as it plans to drastically raise spending, particularly on infrastructure.
The Duterte administration has set an P8.44-trillion infrastructure spending plan until 2022, when it ends it six-year term, to boost GDP growth to 7-8% starting this year from a targeted 6.5-7.5% in 2017. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
