THE Philippine government has shelved its plans to issue panda bonds this month on the back of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak. “For now, wala muna [we won’t issue panda bonds], because it’s supposed to be in March and of course we are also marking the panda market development so I think we are not seeing any panda issuance at this time obviously because of COVID,” de Leon said. “We’ll have to see in terms of the rates [if we will issue panda bonds this year], and of course there would be opportunities for other markets to be able to make up for the possible takeup from the panda issuance. Nonethless, she said apart from these sources, the government can turn to the local market for its funding requirements at this time. The country’s first panda bond issuance was in March 2018, with the awarded security amounting to RMB1.46 billion with a three-year maturity.

Source: The Local March 09, 2020 16:07 UTC