Plantersbank taps foreign partners for $15-M investment fund venture

Planters Development Bank (Plantersbank), the country’s largest development bank owned by the Tambunting family, has tapped foreign partners for the setting up of another equity investment fund worth $15 million.

Plantersbank chairman and chief executive officer Ambassador Jesus P. Tambunting told reporters yesterday that the putting up of another investment fund for the bank would be finalized before yearend.

The amount for the second wave of investment fund, however, is lower than the $25 million fund that the bank set up with Europe-based Aureos Capital.

Declining to identify their partners, Tambunting said these would consist of a fund manager based in Washington,DC and a multilateral institution.

Plantersbank hopes to launch the new fund to be made available for small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), in the latter part of the year.

"We’re working on our second equity fund for SMEs (small and medium enterprises). It will be launched, hopefully, before the end of the year," he said.

The creation of the new equity fund is part of the Plantersbank’s objective to extend more financial assistance to SMEs.

Early this year, Plantersbank launched the Plantersbank-Aureos Capital SME Equity Fund, a partnership that will bring $25 billion in equity investments to the country for the next four years.

Aureos Capital is the leading manager of SME private equity funds in developing countries.

Tambunting said they are evaluating at least 10 projects to qualify for the fund’s assistance among these are: a surplus shop, a retail business, a technology company and an outsourcing firm.

"It is our way of helping the domestic economy grow," Tambunting said.

As this developed, Tambunting said they expect this year’s earnings to reach more than P300 million.

He explained that the 2004’s income was mainly due to earnings incurred from the sale of some of the bank’s treasury assets.

He said this year, they hope earnings growth would be driven by efficient consumer operations.

Plantersbank is a private development banking institution focusing on SMEs. Among its shareholders are: World Bank’s International Finance Corp. (IFC), Netherlands Development Finance Co. (FMO), and Asian Development Bank which altogether own over 40 percent stake of the bank.