UFJ Holdings, which holds a 17-percent stake in RCBC, is slated to merge with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc., the second-largest Japanese banking group in terms of assets, on Oct. 1. UFJ and MTFG plan to merge their holding companies, securities firms, commercial banks and trust banks.
"There will certainly be a change in the ownership structure. With Mitsubishi Tokyo being the surviving entity, its assessment of what to do will dictate the ownership structure of RCBC," the bank said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
RCBC – the ninth largest lender in terms of assets among the country’s 42 commercial banks – said Mitsubishi Tokyo may either opt to retain the stake in RCBC or consolidate its holdings in the Philippines under its own name.
Mitsubishi Tokyo also has its own banking operation in the Philippines.
RCBC also said it plans to raise its capital by P3 billion to P5 billion this year from its current P13.6 billion. It hopes to be able to boost its capital to P30 billion by 2007. Details of the capital hike plan have yet to be finalized, the bank said.
The Yuchengco Group is one of the country’s largest business conglomerates with interests in insurance, manufacturing, realty development, construction, and financial services.
RCBC opened for business as a small development bank in 1960, then went through rapid expansion to become the preferred banker to a wide range of markets: the Filipino-Chinese market, the corporate market, locators in the export processing zones, the middle market, and the consumer/retail market.
The bank has equity holdings in companies engaged in power generation, automotive assembly, thrift banking, food manufacturing. These companies are deemed leaders in their respective niches and are in industries with long-term growth potentials.
It entered into a joint venture agreement with Honda Cars and Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan and the Ayala Group to produce the well-engineered and popular Honda cars for the Philippine market.
Together with another Yuchengco Group flagship the House of Investments and Enron Corp., it put up the Subic Power Corp. (SPC), a diesel-fired 116-megawatt power plant built under the build-operate-transfer scheme.