BDO starts P5-B LTNCD offer

MANILA, Philippines - BDO Unibank Inc., the main banking unit of the SM Group of Companies, has started offering P5 billion worth of seven-year long-term negotiable certificates of time deposit (LTNCD).

The LTNCD issue, which will last until Aug. 27, carries an indicative interest rate of 3-3.5 percent.

The debt papers have a settlement and maturity date of Sept. 5, 2013 and Sept. 5, 2020, respectively.

The LTNCD will come in minimum denomination of P100,000 and increments of P50,000.

The bank said the offering would be arranged by Standard Chartered Bank and ING Bank Inc.

BDO earlier said it plans to issue up to P10 billion worth of LTNCD within the remaining months of the year.

BDO executive vice president Eduardo Francisco said they want to maintain the issue volume at a maximum of P10 billion as these certificates tend to be more expensive than the usual savings deposit.

The last time BDO issued LTNCDs, he said, was two years ago.

BDO had joined the bandwagon of local bank issuing  these kind of certificates.

Earlier, RCBC, EastWest Bank, Union Bank and Metrobank also indicated  plans to issue LTNCDs within the year.

For 2013, BDO expects its net interest income to grow 12 percent to P40.5 billion from  P36.2 billion in 2012 while non-interest income is seen to expand 28 percent to P31.2 billion from P24.4 billion.

With these, BDO sees its gross operating income for 2013 to increase 18 percent to P71.7 billion from the 2012 level of P60.6 billion.