|
By Maricel E. Burgonio and Likha C. Cuevas-Miel Reporters
The government on Wednesday sold
its remaining shares in Philippine National Bank (PNB), paving the
way for the lender’s full privatization and the completion of its
rehabilitation, according to state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance
Corp. (PDIC).
In a statement, Cristina Q.
Orbeta, PDIC executive vice-president, said the government and the
state-run insurer sold a combined 12.28-percent stake in PNB through
a public offering.
Proceeds of the sale were divided
between the government with P1 billion, and PDIC with P3.2 billion.
The public offering came two years after the successful sale of the
government and PDIC’s combined 32.45 percent stake in PNB to
controlling shareholder Lucio Tan. This was the government’s
single biggest privatization effort since 1997.
“The divestment via public
offering was made jointly with PNB which raised primary shares to
further boost its capital,” Orbeta said.
On top of the old shares held by
the government and PDIC, PNB also issued new shares to boost its
capital. The lender raised about P9.5 billion from the sale of 112.6
shares to foreigners and 48.2 million shares to local investors.
Of the total proceeds, about P5.3
billion would go to the bank.
The sale of the government’s
remaining shares is strategic for PDIC as it marked the successful
conclusion of the six-year rehabilitation program of the bank after
the state-run insurer granted financial assistance in 2001, Orbeta
said.
She said the joint public
offering with PNB is a good exit option in light of positive market
developments and prospects of higher recovery on the sale of their
shares. The value of PNB’s shares appreciated by close to 50
percent from a par value of P40 per share to the public offer sale
price of P59 per share.
The bank fully paid its P6.1
billion loan to the PDIC last June or four years ahead of the
scheduled maturity date.
Finance Secretary Margarito B.
Teves, who sits as PDIC chairman, said the state-insurer has
recommended the remittance of P350 million in advance dividends to
the national treasury after the successful public offering of PNB
shares.
This is in response to President
Arroyo’s directive to all government-owned and -controlled
corporations and state-run financial institutions to advance their
dividend payments this year to prop up the government’s finances.
PDIC last year remitted P200 million in dividends to the treasury.
Bank plans to bring down
bad-asset ratio by year-end
After its capital-raising
exercise, the bank plans to unload some of its bad assets by
year-end to reduce it to a “comfortable” ratio, the lender’s
president said.
“We are thinking of doing again
a last SPAV [special purpose asset vehicle] transaction in the last
6 months to bring it down to single digit,” Omar Byron T. Mier,
PNB president, said on the sidelines of the listing ceremony.
During the first three months,
the bank’s bad loan ratio stood at 10.8 percent while the industry
average stood at 5 percent to 6 percent.
Mier said PNB will sell
P4-billion worth of bad assets, two thirds of which are real and
other properties owned or acquired and the balance are bad loans.
By selling these to a special
purpose asset vehicle, the bank would reduce its bad loans to a
“more comfortable level of 6 percent to 7 percent,” the PNB
executive said.
The lender also plans to grow its
loan portfolio in the next five years by “a wide range of 25
percent to 30 percent” annually. 
|
