Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has increased its final bond sale offer to P36 billion from the initial P5 billion value due to “strong investor demand.”

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the bank issued and listed the P36 billion 1.5 year peso fixed-rate bonds due 2025 on Nov. 13.

The final size of the bonds was increased more than seven times its original value as determined by their investors’ response to the sale, according to the bank.

"Our business continues to thrive mainly because of the strong trust our customers, investors, and stakeholders have in what we do. We thank our investors for the incredible demand in our issuance, as this will greatly support our push to expand our digitalization efforts and diversify our funding sources,” said BPI Treasurer Dino Gasmen.

“We remain strongly committed to further improving our capacity to provide financial services that our fellow Filipinos need in line with our vision of building a better Philippines, one family, one community at a time," he added.

The bonds, which have an interest rate of 6.4250 percent per annum and paid quarterly, are currently tradable on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.

The sale is the second tranche of BPI’s P100 billion bond program, wherein the net proceeds will be used for “general corporate purposes, including funding source diversification.”

The first tranche was the P20 billion bond sale for BPI’s Reinforcing Inclusive Support for MSMEs Bonds (or the BPI RISE Bonds).

BPI Capital Corporation and ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch served as the Joint Lead Arrangers and Selling Agents of the offer.