INVESTORS trooped to the bond listing of the country’s eighth-largest bank by asset, which saw its offer five-times oversubscribed from the minimum issue size of P3 billion.
Indeed, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) received strong demand after listing on Monday its P14.75 billion in Series E Asean Sustainability Bonds due 2024 at the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.
The bonds carry a coupon rate of 3 percent per year. The Yuchengco-led bank concluded its offering last February 11.
According to RCBC, it will use the proceeds from the offer to support asset growth, refinance maturing liabilities and other general funding purposes in line with its sustainable finance framework.
The bonds form part of RCBC’s P100-billion bond and commercial paper program. The offering marks the seventh time that the bank has tapped the peso bond market and brings the total amount raised by RCBC from all bonds issuances since 2019 to P86.8 billion, which it said was a record amount for the bank.
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd has been mandated as the sole lead arranger and bookrunner. RCBC Capital Corp. was named financial advisor for this transaction. Selling agents were HSBC and RCBC.
The sustainability bonds that RCBC issued last year worth P17.87 billion have been cited by a finance-oriented magazine as being the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) sustainability bond issuance out of the Philippines in 2021 and the only peso-denominated sustainability bond floated last year.
Last March 31, RCBC listed its P17.87 billion in 2.5 years and 5.25 years Series-C and Series-D Asean Sustainability Bonds. Rates were pegged at 3.2 percent for the Series-C and 4.18 percent for Series-D per annum, to be paid quarterly in arrears.
RCBC claims to be the first universal bank “to publicly commit to defunding new coal-fired power plants in the country.” It said it also took the lead in financing some of the Philippines’s and the region’s biggest “green infrastructure” and renewable energy projects, while involving itself in pioneer capacity-building activities to contribute to the Philippine commitment to the Paris Agreement.
