In February, Putrajaya reintroduced yen-denominated government bonds to end over three decades of
Samurai bonds' absence here.
In August last year, the Philippine government returned to the yen-denominated
samurai bond market after an eight-year hiatus, with a multitranche AY=154.2-billion transaction, or $1.39 billion, which yielded a weighted average spread of 34.7 basis points above benchmark.
de Leon said the
samurai bonds were already priced on Friday.
The Duterte administration sold 154.2 billion yen from the sale of multi-tranche "
Samurai bonds," equivalent of $1.39 billion, in August last year.
The Philippine government on Tuesday launched its latest yen-denominated
Samurai bond with three, five, seven and 10-year tenors, with a possible total issuance of between USD750 million and USD1 billion.
Meanwhile, De Leon said the BTr is also looking to issue as much as $1.5 billion worth of
samurai bonds, scheduled around 12 months after its last
samurai bond issuance in August last year.
Egypt has been considering the issuance of Chinese renminbi-denominated Panda and Japanese yen-denominated
Samurai bonds in an effort to vary from the euro and US dollar bond since 2017.
The Finance chief noted that last year's global bond issuance had a 'tight' spread of 37.8 basis points over the US Treasuries; the panda bonds, a spread of just 35 basis points over the benchmark; while the
samurai bonds, a weighted average spread of 34.7 basis points above benchmark across multiple tenors.
Japan Bank for International Cooperation's (JBIC) guarantee will cover the principal and part of the interest of the privately placed
Samurai bonds. The bond was priced at 0.97 percent (YSO+27 bps) for 10 years.
The
Samurai bonds, or yen bonds sold in Japan by foreign issuers, will be placed in the second half of May in denominations of at least JPY100,000 (USD1,245/EUR947).
Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., one of underwriters for the issue, said there are three other
samurai bonds that have been issued by the Reykjavik-based bank.
