Deals of the year - Top quality issuers succeed in demanding markets
The Republic of the Philippines was the first Asian borrower to tap the Eurobond market in 1999 when it launched a $1 billion transaction as early as January 7. The bond was the largest-ever capital markets financing by the republic and the first public transaction of the Estrada administration but was most significant for representing a reopening of the Asian market.
The issue was split into two equal tranches of $500 million each, one carrying a maturity of 10 years and the other 20 years. Inés Noé, director of Asian-Pacific debt capital markets at Warburg Dillon Read (WDR) in Hong Kong, recalls how the deal was born. "Back in October, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan were appointed to double the $500 million deal they had launched in April and, at the same time, WDR won the mandate for the new 20-year bond. When we found out, we decided that there was no point in running the deals separately and to arrange the deal together."
The Philippines would have liked to issue before the end of the year, but the three book-runners advised the issuer to wait.