PBCom eyes P7-B from new equity, assets sale

The Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom) will be getting an additional P3 billion in "clean money" and another P3 to P4 billion from the sale of its bad assets.

PBCom president and chief executive officer Isidro C. Alcantara Jr. said the bank’s major shareholders have infused a little over P3 billion in fresh capital. The Luy family will put in some P1.2 billion, the Nubla clan a little over P1 billion, and the Chong family another P1 billion.

In return, the board seats were expanded from 12 to 15, or an additional one seat for every new capital infusion from each of the major stakeholders.

Alcantara also admitted that the bank is in "serious discussions" with the Philippine Deposit and Insurance Corp. (PDIC) for a possible special purpose vehicle (SPV) arrangement.

"Our discussions (with PDIC) is within the context of a SPV, and not capital infusion," Alcantara said during a special stockholders meeting held yesterday. Earlier reports point to capital infusion from both the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the PDIC.

The bank hopes to raise between P5 to P6 billion from the sale of its non-performing loans (NPLs) and real or otherwise properties owned or acquired (ROPOA).

"We want to solve our bad asset problems which had been dragging for two to three years even if we had already disposed of a big chunk," Alcantara said. In fact, he estimated that the medium-sized commercial bank would record positive gains for 2003 due to extraordinary gains from the sale of bad assets aside from gain treasury gains.