Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the financial services arm of the Zobel-led Ayala Group, is planning to raise funds from the overseas debt market by offering foreign exchange derivatives (FXD) or floating rate notes (FRN).
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said it has mandated subsidiary BPI Capital Corp. as the sole global coordinator alongside BofA Securities, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and UBS as joint bookrunners, to arrange a series of fixed-income investor meetings commencing Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
It added that, “A US dollar-denominated benchmark-sized Regulation S offering of five-year FXD and/or FRN and/or 10-year FXD senior notes may follow, subject to market conditions.”
The notes are expected to be rated BBB by Standard & Poor’s and, when issued, will constitute a drawdown under BPI’s $3-billion medium term note program.
The issuer’s legal adviser regarding Philippine law is SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, and the joint bookrunners’ legal adviser regarding Philippine law is Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles. As regards English law, the joint bookrunners’ legal adviser is Milbank (Hong Kong) LLP.
BPI reported 20-percent year-on-year growth in net income to ₱62 billion for 2024, driven by higher revenues and partly offset by higher operating expenses and provisions.
For the fourth quarter of 2024, the bank recorded a net income of ₱14.1 billion, up eight percent year-on-year, on higher revenue growth.
BPI generated robust revenue of ₱170.1 billion, up 23 percent from the previous year. This was attributable to the 22.3-percent increase in net interest income to ₱127.6 billion, as the average asset base expanded 16.8 percent, and the net interest margin widened 22 basis points (bps) to 4.31 percent.
Further boosting revenues was the 25.3-percent increase in non-interest income to ₱42.6 billion, driven by higher income from the credit card, wealth management and bancassurance businesses, as well as gains from securities trading.