PBCom issues shortlist of candidates for new prexy

The Philippine Bank of Communication (PBCom) has shortlisted the candidates for its new president ahead of the annual stockholders meeting on June 21.

Among those in the shortlist are the bank’s executive vice president and officer-in-charge (OIC) Angel C. Corpus, former ABN-AMRO executive Carmelo Bautista, Roman D. Azanza, and Renato Peronilla, who sits in the bank’s board representing the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC).

The other PDIC representatives in the 15-man board are Antonio Quiala, Jose Luis Javier and Ruben Almendra.

Reports indicate that Peronilla has been the leading candidate due to his extensive banking experience, which included stints in PCI Bank and Traders Royal Bank. PCI Bank has since been absorbed and now known as Equitable PCI Bank while the Bank of Commerce acquired Traders Royal Bank.

"What may be working against Peronilla’s acceptance of the post is that his family is based overseas," a bank insider said.

PBCom has been without a president since October last year when Isidro C. Alcantara Jr. resigned. Since then, Corpus has been designated as OIC.

Banking sources said that the shortlist has been changed several times since October but the bank failed to agree on a single candidate or that some of the candidates declined the invitation.

"There was never a consensus among the majority stakeholders," a source said. "Remember that the president-designate must have the vote of the three majority stakeholders."

PBCom is controlled by the Luy, Chung and Nubla clans. The Luy family is also into the manufacture and export of coconut oil; the Chung family controls the La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory; while the Nubla family is in the financial sector.

The PDIC entered the picture early last year when PBCom required financial assistance due to liquidity problems. It was required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to act on its liquidity problems or face the prospect of being downgraded into a thrift bank.

The PDIC extended P7.64 billion over a 10-year period. The amount will be used to acquire government securities, thus serving as a pledge for security or collateral for the financial assistance.

Likewise, the PDIC took custodianship of the certificates of stock of the major stockholders equivalent to 67 percent of total outstanding shares.

Aside from the government financial, PBCom fasttracked the sale of its non-performing assets (NPAs) in a bid to return to financial health.

Thus, it was able to dispose of P12.2 billion via the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route also in October, prior to the resignation of Alcantara.