THE Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM) has announced the start of its offering period to issue Long Term Negotiable Certificate of Time Deposits (LTNCD) in an effort to further boost its strategic initiatives and meet its growth prospects moving forward. This will be the maiden issuance for the Lucio Co-led Bank, which marked almost eight decades in the banking business earlier this month. Mr. Co has been a strategic partner of the Bank since 2014. The funds will be used for general corporate funding with an emphasis on long-term lending.
PBCOM is targeting to raise about P2 billion, from this exercise although it has Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approval to issue up to P5 billion. The offer period for the initial tranche will run from September 17 until September 28. The LTNCDs will feature a term of five years and six months with an indicative rate of 5.375 percent to 5.625 percent and payable quarterly.
The rate will be finalized at the end of the offering period and will be exempt from the 20 percent withholding tax to individual investors if held for more than five years. Minimum investment size is P50,000, followed by increments of P10,000.
ING Bank N.V. (Manila Branch) and the Development Bank of the Philippines have been appointed to act as joint lead arrangers, joint book runners and selling agents for the transaction. PBCOM will also act as a selling agent.
The instrument will be listed in the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. platform.