BDO to open 60 branches this year

MANILA, Philippines — BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender, is further expanding its nationwide footprint this year opening up to 60 branches as it continues to beef up its network.

Nestor Tan, president and chief executive officer of BDO, said the parent bank would establish the additional branches nationwide this year.

“The target for this year is to open up to 60 branches for the parent bank, aside from the branches and offices for our rural bank subsidiary, BDO Network Bank,” Tan said.

He said the BDO Group opened 127 branches and banking offices, bringing the total to 1,434 branches nationwide last year from 1,307 in 2018 as well as over 4,400 ATMs all over the country.

The listed bank owned by the family of the late retail and banking magnate Henry Sy also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as 20 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Tan told The STAR branch expansion and information technology outlays continue to take up bulk of the bank’s capital expenditures.

He added BDO is still finalizing its capex budget and profit guidance for 2020.

BDO continues to tap both the offshore and onshore debt markets to finance its expansion program and at the same time diversify its funding sources.

Last month, it returned to the domestic debt market and raised a record P40.1 billion via the issuance of fixed rate bonds.

Retail and institutional investors gobbled up the 2.5-year bonds carrying a yield of 4.408 percent per annum issued by BDO as the amount raised was eight times the original offering of P5 billion.

BDO launched a P100-billion bond program in August 2018. Of the total, BDO raised P35 billion via the issuance of fixed rate bonds in February last year.

Data from Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx) showed debt issuance by Philippine banks jumped 132.5 percent to P268.98 billion in 2019 from P115.7 billion in 2018. The financial sector accounted for 71.8 percent of the total record high P374.53 billion new listings at the PDEx last year.

BDO topped the list after raising P48.82 billion through the issuance of bonds and LTNCDs, followed by Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) founded by the late taipan George SK Ty with P42.5 billion and Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).

Sy-led China Bank issued fixed rate bonds worth P30 billion, while Philippine National Bank (PNB) of tobacco and airline magnate Lucio Tan raised P26.69 billion consisting of P20.17 billion worth of bonds and P12.82 billion worth of LTNCDs.