THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P360 billion from its latest offering of 5.5-year Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs).
Of the amount, P330.5 billion and P29.5 billion were raised in new money and through the bond exchange, respectively.
The amount already includes the P113.5 billion raised from the rate-setting auction last November 16 while an additional P217 billion was generated throughout the offer period. The 26th tranche of RTBs is set to be settled on December 2 this year.
Proceeds from the issuance will help the country respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic and will support various programs for economic resiliency and recovery.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon attributed the success of their latest RTB issuance to the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals.
“The healthy macroeconomic environment, characterized by sufficient domestic market liquidity and downward trend in inflation supported our third retail issuance, or the second peso-denominated jumbo offering for the year,” De Leon said.
De Leon said they have also observed that more Filipinos are getting into the habit of investing as the BTr introduced digital platforms to make the process more convenient.
“As such, we at the BTr will continue to introduce new products and channels in the future to allow our individual investors to diversify their personal portfolios, as well as reduce the friction costs and barriers to investing”, De Leon added.
Over the two-week offer period, the BTr partnered with the Department of Foreign Affairs to conduct webinars with Overseas Filipinos to discuss the features and how to invest in RTBs. These financial literacy sessions for OFs were conducted in more than 50 cities and countries around the world, including those in East Africa, South America, and Europe.
The RTB-26 was made available for as low as P5,000 through the traditional over-the-counter placement in bank branches, as well as digital channels such as the BTr’s RTB Online Ordering Facility, the Bonds.PH mobile application, the Overseas Filipino Bank Mobile Banking Application, and the Landbank Mobile Banking Application.
The Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines are the Joint Lead Issue Managers for the 26thRTB offering.
They are joined by BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital Corporation, China Bank Capital Corporation, First Metro Investment Corporation, PNB Capital and Investment Corporation, RCBC Capital Corporation, and Union Bank of the Philippines as Joint Issue Managers.
T-bills auction
Meanwhile, the BTr also fully awarded P10 billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills) on Monday as rates moved sideways. The auction was more than thrice oversubscribed as total tenders reached P37.65 billion.
De Leon said they saw strong investor demand following the reduction of volume for December auctions. For this month, the Treasury had set to borrow P70 billion from the local debt market, smaller than those from the previous months in a bid to ensure that the government will be able to stay within its annual borrowing program and maintain the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio at “sustainable levels.”
“Rates hardly moved even after the start of taper and expectations of rates heading north,” she added.
The 91-day T-bills’ average rate settled at 1.164 percent, down by 1.4 basis points from the previous auction’s 1.178 percent. Total tenders for the security hit P11.318 billion, more than five times the P2-billion offering. For the 182-day T-bills, rates capped at an average of 1.449 percent, inching up by 0.6 basis points from 1.443 percent in the last auction. Bids for security reached P13.98 billion, more than four times the P3-billion offering.
In terms of the 363-day T-bills, the rate also slightly rose to 1.636 percent, higher by 0.8 basis points from 1.628 percent. The tenor attracted bids amounting to a total of P12.35 billion, more than twice the P5-billion offering.