Philippines to Launch 40bn Peso Retail Bond Sale on Feb. 21

The Philippines will launch its first retail bond offering this year on Feb. 21, 2012 with a minimum issue size of 40 billion pesos ($938 million), Deputy National Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola said.

After the auction, there will be a public offer period that will run until Feb. 28 when the government hopes to sell more of the bonds to refinance similar bonds falling due during the month.

Mendiola said the retail bonds will have maturities of 15 and 20 years.

Nine banks were hired to handle the issue. They are First Metro Investment Corp, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co , BDO Capital, BPI Capital and Landbank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, Philippine National Bank, China Banking Corp and Deutsche Bank.

The government has said it plans to regularly sell retail T-bonds twice in a year.