By Clarissa Batino

Source: Bloomberg.com Feb 15 2011 -

The Philippines has hired five banks to sell 5- and 10-year bonds targeted at individual investors,

Treasurer Roberto Tan said.

State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, First Metro Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp. and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. will be selling the bonds starting next week, Tan said in a phone interview today.

The Philippines has been spurning high bids at debt auctions since last month to cap borrowing costs and is

examining other funding options to plug its budget deficit. The country has been tapping funds from individuals since 2001 and has raised more than 200 billion pesos ($4.6 billion) from so-called retail treasury bond sales in the past two years.

The government may also sell Samurai bonds, or yen-denominated notes sold in Japan by overseas borrowers, Tan said.

The $161 billion Asian economy had recorded budget deficits in 22 of the past 26 years. It is seeking to narrow the shortfall this year to about 290 billion pesos from an estimated record 310 billion pesos in 2010.

The government plans to auction at least 10 billion pesos each of five- and 10-year bonds on Feb. 22 for “price setting,” Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola said in a mobile phone text-message today. The government may sell another batch of the debt by the third quarter, Mendiola said yesterday.

About 28.8 billion pesos of three- and five-year retail bonds, sold in denominations as low as 5,000 pesos, will mature in July and in December, based on Bloomberg data. The Philippines sold 97.5 billion pesos of the bonds in August 2010 and 114.4 billion pesos in September 2009.

Maturing government debt in March will give investors additional cash to deploy, Tan said. About 90.6 billion pesos of five-year bonds will be due next month.

The government will meet with investors in Manila, Cebu and Davao next week, Mendiola said today

To be updated on Government Security Offerings check www.treasury.gov.ph

A list of GSED – Government securities accredited dealers can also be found there.

Announcement re RTB 13 Offering here: http://www.treasury.gov.ph/govsec/puboffering/others.pdf

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What is a Mutual Fund?

(source: http://www.pifa.com.ph/mf_101.html)

A Mutual Fund is an investment company that pools the funds of many individual and institutional investors to form a massive asset base.   The assets are then entrusted to a full time professional fund manager who develops and maintains a diversified portfolio of security investments.  People who buy shares of a mutual fund are its owners or shareholders.  Their purchases provide the money for a mutual fund to buy securities such as stocks and bonds.  A mutual can make money from its securities investments in two ways: a security can pay dividends and interest to the fund, or a security  can rise in value.  The fund passes any dividends, interest or profits on the sale of its portfolio securities, less fund expenses, to shareholders in the form of distributions.

Current Mutual Fund Performance – As of August 26, 2011

* – NAVPS as of the previous banking day

** – NAVPS as of two banking days ago

Definition of Terms:

• NAVPS – Net Asset Value Per Share Price of a unit of mutual funds)
• 1/3/5 yr. Return – returns in percentage as of date indicated, if you invested on the same date (or its closest banking day) 1/3/5 years ago respectively
• YTD Return – Year To Date Return (returns in percentage as of date indicated, if you invested on the first banking day of the year)
• Stock/Equity Funds – money is invested primarily in stocks
• Balanced Funds – approximately half of the money is invested in stocks and the other half in fixed income instruments like government securities or corporate bonds
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