AN OVERWHELMING interest to invest by general public has been recorded by The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) as the auction block of retail treasury bonds’(RTBs) bids reached a total of P124 billion as of Tuesday, September 6.
BTr treasurer Roberto Tan, told reporters Wednesday afternoon at the sidelines of the Investors Briefing road shows (Davao) at the Marco Polo Hotel-Davao that they are still open to accepting more in a bid to provide opportunities to the retail and single investors to generate funds for government.
“Reading on the market as reflected on the auction Tuesday, we have a very good turnout, the bids that were submitted to the Bureau of Treasury reached P124B and we accepted P65B,” he said.
BTr only offered an auction block of at least P30 billion worth of retail treasury bonds (RTBs) last September 2.
The bonds, maturing on September 2026, was offered to the general investing public for minimum denominations of P5,000 starting September 6 until September 16, 2016.
The 10-year debt paper, the 18th tranche of the Peso-denominated retail bond offering of the government is aimed at reaching a wider retail investor base.
He said that basing on the initial feedback and auction results, he is very confident and has high expectations at the success of the offering.
The BTr has an ongoing national road shows for this issuance in different cities across the country, including Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Ilo-ilo, Naga, Batangas, Baguio, and National Capital Region (NCR).
When asked if investors are affected due to the declaration of the Philippine government on the State of Lawless violence, Tan said that the surge of investment interest towards the RTB is a strong indicator that the general investing public is keen in pouring money on Philippine government securities.
He added that this is pursuant to the government’s thrust, which is enabling the ordinary retail investor “to have easier access to safe government debt securities and promoting investment-consciousness among Filipinos.”
“No, we based it on whether confidence is a declining, but if it’s not, the prices of securities of government are stable not volatile, it means there is calm, it will be better I think, because the President (Rodrigo Duterte) make sure that peace and order stability are there,” Tan said.
He added that one of its target investors are the “millennials” for their retirement instrument.
In a press release statement of the BTr, the RTBs is described to be representing the Philippine government’s direct, unconditional, and general obligations.
It is considered to be low-risk for local investors. Other good features of the brands are it has quarterly interest income, higher yielding capacity than deposit rates and has an easy step on investing.
The RTBs will be distributed through qualified dealers and selling agents which are required to sell at least half of their allocated volumes to retail investors.
The BTr has tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital Corporation, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and Chinabank Capital as Issue Managers for this retail bond offering. Land Bank of the Philippines and First Metro Investment Corporation were designated as the Lead Issue Manager for the transaction.
Meanwhile, the demand for Philippine government securities is expected to remain strong amid market volatilities stirred by global uncertainties.
This, after the country’s sound economic fundamentals, strong domestic liquidity, and recent positive economic growth.
The Philippines has remained one of the fastest growing economies in Asia with its robust gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.0 percent in the second quarter of 2016. (ASP)
