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ALLIED Banking Corp. told the Philippine Stock Exchange that it has
upsized its borrowing by half as investors lapped up its debt paper
offering.
In a disclosure, the Lucio Tan-led lender said
that its lower tier 2 notes worth P3 billion issued on March 6 was
1.7 times oversubscribed. This allowed the eight biggest lender in
the country to increase the issue size of its first public debt
capital market transaction by 50 percent to P4.5billion.
“Despite volatile markets and movements in the
benchmark rates during the offer period, the issue enjoyed strong
demand from both retail and institutional investors,” Reynaldo
Maclang, Allied Bank president, said.
The debt notes were priced at 7.125 percent,
which is half the indicated pricing range of 6.875 percent to 7.375
percent at the start of the offer. Proceeds from the debt issuance
rated Ba3 by Moody’s Investors Service would strengthen Allied
Bank’s capital base and improve its capital adequacy ratio from
16.9 percent at end-December to about 20.09 percent.
ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch was tapped as the
lead manager and sole bookrunner while selling agents include BDO
Capital & Investment Corp., Multinational Investment Bancorp.
and sister bank Philippine National Bank (PNB). Allied Bank served
as its own limited selling agent while PNB Capital & Investment
Corp. acted as its financial advisor for the issuance.
Fitch Ratings earlier said the lender’s
possible merger with sister bank PNB is positive in the long run but
remains problematic given the two lenders’ high level of bad
assets.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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