|
The Philippine National Bank has sold its entire
stake in Beneficial-PNB Life Insurance Co. Inc. (Benlife) to
concentrate on its bancassurance business, the bank told the
Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.
In a disclosure, the Lucio
Tan-led bank said it signed a memorandum of agreement with FMF
Development Corp. and Merje Trading Inc. for the sale of PNB’s
40-percent stake in the insurance firm. The lender said the sale is
in accordance with Article 10 of the original accord that it signed
with Benlife on June 15, 1996, when it bought the stake of the
company.
“The divestment will allow PNB
to concentrate on its bancassurance business with PNB Life Insurance
Inc.,” the bank said.
According to Susan Cervantes, PNB
chief of marketing services division, PNB Life is the former New
York Life Insurance (Philippines) Inc., which was controlled by
sister company Allied Banking Corp. In April last year, the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas approved Allied Bank’s increase in its stake
in NYLIP by 50 percent for P116.7 million. This allowed the lender
to own 75 percent of the company. Based on its disclosure last year,
the purchase will be done in two tranches of 50 percent and 25
percent until October this year.
Cervantes said the Securities and
Exchange Commission has approved the change in corporate name from
NYLIP to PNB Life last month. However, she was mum about how much
PNB earned from the sale, but said the proceeds will go to various
investments such as loans and securities.
The central bank has approved
last month PNB’s capital hike to raise additional funds by issuing
lower tier 2 capital of up to P6 billion to partly finance tier 2
notes maturing next year. PNB’s capital adequacy ratio under Basel
II remained high at 18.51 percent, or way above the 10 percent ratio
the BSP requires.
Earlier, the two Tan-controlled
banks announced their merger, which would result in a combined
entity with assets of P388 billion. The merged bank will displacing
Land Bank of the Philippines as the country’s fourth largest
lender and brings together the two lenders’ client base, including
large corporations, local government units, government owned and
controlled corporations, overseas Filipino workers, the
Chinese-Filipino community, and the rural market.
With the integration, PNB will
keep its existing 626 local and 124 international offices. The
merger will cost P1.2 billion to P1.3 billion, Omar Byron Mier, PNB
president, earlier said.
PNB ended last quarter with a net
income growth of 48 percent to P457 million year on year driven
primarily by its corporate and consumer lending business. The bank
said it sustained growth in foreign exchange gains, deposits, retail
banking, while keeping operating and interest expense low.
--Likha Cuevas-Miel
|
