UnionBank prices SRO at P30.57 per share

MANILA, Philippines — Union Bank of the Philippines has set the price of its stock rights offering at P30.57 per share, below the price range of P33.73 to P38.23 per share it provided a week ago.

“The offer price was determined based on the volume-weighted average price of the bank’s common shares traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange for each of 15 consecutive trading days immediately prior to (and excluding) May 2, subject to a discount of 25 percent,” the bank said in a disclosure.

The Aboitiz-led bank has also set the entitlement ratio at one rights share for every 9.1382 UnionBank shares owned.

The fund raising is set to kick off this month to raise as much as P10 billion to fund the capital infusion of its digital bank and for other general purposes.

Based on its preliminary offer terms sheet submitted last week, the bank is looking to offer up to 450 million rights shares to eligible shareholders from May 16 to May 24.

CLSA Exchange Capital Inc. and Unicapital Inc. are acting as the joint underwriters.

Existing shareholders, including Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Insular Life Assurance Co. Inc., and pension fund manager Social Security System have agreed to subscribe for entitlement shares during the first round of the offer. They may also subscribe to additional rights shares during the second round.

According to UnionBank, the proceeds would be used to fund the capital infusion of Union Digital Bank, projected retail loan availments and for other general corporate purposes.

Last October, the bank’s board of directors approved capital raising activities of up to P20 billion, which may take in the form of a stock rights offering to all existing shareholders or a private placement, subject to market conditions.

UnionBank booked a net income of P2 billion in the first quarter, down by 41.2 percent from the P3.4 billion in the same period in 2023.

This, as the bank continued to allocate resources toward its takeover of the retail banking business of global banking giant Citi in the Philippines.