BDO ends green bond offering early due to strong demand
Nestor V. Tan, President and CEO of BDO Unibank, Inc.
Top lender BDO Unibank Inc. of the SM Group has shortened the offer period for its fourth peso-denominated Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) sustainability bonds issue amid strong demand from both retail and institutional investors.
The offering was originally set to run from July 9 to 22, 2025, but the bank said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that it has decided to close the offer period early—on July 14, 2025.
The Sy-led bank’s latest ASEAN sustainability bonds have a tenor of one-and-a-half (1.5) years and bear a coupon rate of 5.875 percent per annum. The issue, settlement, and listing date will be on July 29, 2025.
The net proceeds of the issuance are intended to finance and/or refinance eligible assets as defined in BDO’s sustainable finance framework, support the bank’s lending activities, and diversify its funding sources.
ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch was the sole arranger and sustainability coordinator, with BDO and ING as selling agents, and BDO Capital & Investment Corp. as financial advisor.
The offering is for at least ₱5 billion but BDO has consistently been raising several times that amount in its previous issuances, which also had shortened offering periods due to oversubscription.
“This marks the bank’s fourth peso-denominated sustainability bond following a ₱55.7-billion issue in July 2024, ₱63.3-billion issue in January 2024, and ₱52.7-billion issue in January 2022,” BDO said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed that the proposed issuance complies with the requirements set forth under the ASEAN sustainability bond standards and the SEC ASEAN sustainability bond circular.
BDO’s ASEAN sustainability bond issue in July last year was more than 11 times oversubscribed versus the original offer size of ₱5 billion due to strong demand from both retail and institutional investors that also prompted the early closing of the offer period.
For its January 2024 issuance, BDO also upsized its ASEAN sustainability bond issue by more than 12 times to raise ₱63.3 billion also on the back of strong demand from retail and institutional investors.
Meanwhile, the ₱52.7 billion BDO raised in 2022 was more than 10 times the original offer of ₱5 billion due to very strong demand from retail and institutional investors.