Philippines plans $500 mln Samurai bonds

MANILA, June 15 - The Philippines plans to sell Samurai bonds worth $500 million to partly cover an increased borrowing requirement this year, National Treasurer Roberto Tan said on Monday.

The bond issue could cover the government's entire additional foreign borrowing this year and would be guaranteed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

"That is the initial amount we are looking at," Tan told Reuters, adding that plans to offer more overseas commercial debt had not been ruled out.

"That (Samurai bonds) is not the only option we have, we also have commercial borrowings we can tap into. But what we are looking at is this source of financing," Tan said.

Samurai bonds are yen bonds sold in Japan by foreign entities.

The Philippines raised its borrowing needs for 2009 by about $1 billion after raising its budget deficit ceiling to a record 250 billion pesos, or 3.2 percent of gross domestic product, from 199.2 billion pesos, or 2.5 percent of GDP.[ID:nMNA000261]

The increased borrowing would be shared between local and foreign debt, officials have said.