26 Aug 2005
After securing the approval of the Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the National Power Corporation (NPC) returned to the international capital market and raised an additional $100 million through the issuance of six-year Floating Rate Notes to finance its various operational requirements. The flotation comes at the heels of NPC’s successful $300-million offering of the same Notes early this month to bring its total issuance to $400 million.
Nieves L. Osorio, president of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., the government agency tasked with privatizing NPC’s assets, attributed the strong investor response to NPC’s latest offering to improving market fundamentals.
To mature in 2011, the Notes were priced at par and pay a quarterly coupon of three-month US dollar LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) plus 425 basis points.
LIBOR is the rate banks charge each other for short-term eurodollar loans. It is frequently used as the base for resetting rates on floating rate securities.
The transaction arranged by Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. as the sole lead manager was placed with over 30 different accounts across Asia, Europe and North America, with more than 70% taken by institutional investors in the United States and Europe.
The BSP approval stated that the proceeds will be used for servicing NPC’s foreign currency obligations.
Strategic Communications and Partnership Division |