BDO unit to shell out P781 million for Bulacan rural bank

MANILA, Philippines — One Network Bank Inc. (ONB), the rural banking arm of BDO Unibank Inc., is initially spending P781 million to acquire a Bulacan-based rural bank to beef up its nationwide presence and cater to more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) particularly in Central Luzon.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), BDO said ONB is purchasing the gross loan receivables of the Rural Bank of Pandi Inc. (RBPI) currently standing at P918 million, and assume its deposit liabilities amounting to P781 million.

“As partial consideration of the purchase of the loan assets, ONB will assume the deposit liabilities of RBPI. Any difference between the assets acquired and deposit liabilities assumed will be paid by the relevant party, which will be determined at completion,” BDO said.

The country’s largest lender pointed out ONB would pay the excess to RBPI if the recorded gross loans is higher than the deposit liabilities.

On the other hand, RBPI would pay the excess to ONB should the deposit liabilities exceed the gross loans.

ONB, the country’s largest rural bank, signed a purchase agreement with RBPI to acquire its gross loan receivables and branch licenses, and assume its recorded deposit liabilities.

The transaction is subject to the approval of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC), corporate approvals and other conditions customary to similar transactions.

RBPI founded by the Andres and Santos families in 1967 ranked as the country’s 27th largest rural bank in terms of assets with P1.31 billion as of end-June last year.

RBPI has strong SME presence in the province of Bulacan where it has 10 branches.  It is ranked 35th in terms of capitalization with P236.62 million.

BDO has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,300 operating branches and over 4,000 ATMs nationwide. It also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as 22 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

BDO completed the acquisition of ONB from the Consunji family in July 2015 for an estimated value of around P6.7 billion. ONB has more than 120 branches and over 220 ATMs most of which are located in Mindanao.