By James A. Loyola Philippine National Bank (PNB) has returned to the US dollar bond market after it priced US$750 million in Fixed Rate Senior Notes to be drawn down from its recently increased US$2-billion Medium Term Note Program.   The pricing follows successful meetings with investors by the Lucio Tan-led bank in Hong Kong, Singapore and London from June 18 to 20, 2019. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said the Notes will be rated Baa2 by Moody’s, or two notches above investment grade. With the transaction oversubscribed with an orderbook of over US$3.25 billion, the Notes were priced at 99.473 percent and will carry a yield of 3.391 percent and a coupon of 3.28 percent. Over 200 accounts participated in the transaction. The Notes will be issued on June 27, 2019. The proceeds of the Notes will be used to support PNB’s loan growth, as new management increases focus on opportunities brought by the positive momentum of the Republic of the Philippines’ economic growth. "We thank investors for this landmark deal, which stands to be the largest USD bond issuance to-date by a Philippine bank. This transaction comes at an opportune time when we are building up the growth momentum at PNB,” PNB President Wick Veloso said. Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners on the transaction.