UCPB sells bad assets
The United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) has disposed of P8.68 billion of bad assets last week via a public sealed bid auction cutting down further the level of its non-performing assets (NPAs) by 42 percent. Ernst & Young advised UCPB on the auction sale.
The winning bidder, Lehman Brothers Asian Investment Ltd., will pay 20 percent of the bid price next week and the balance by March next year, UCPB first vice president Franco Magalong said.
Lehman Brothers Asian Investment Ltd. is part of the
The auctioned assets consisted of P2.05 billion of non-performing loans (NPLs) and P6.63 billion worth of real and other properties acquired (ROPA). ROPA are properties that banks acquire through foreclosure or dacion en pago (payment in kind) in settlement of soured loans.
Magalong said the successful auction, which was structured under the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Act, will reduce UCPB’s non-performing assets to P12.11 billion.
“The level would be even lower if we take out the P2.4 billion of ROPA that we have placed under joint venture and the P3.8 billion of other ROPA that we have sold on installment but not yet taken off the bad asset list pending the completion of the documentation of the sales,” he added.
Net of the ROPA under joint venture or sold on installment, the bank’s NPAs would stand at only P5.91 billion at the end of the year.
The bank is currently negotiating joint venture agreements on four more ROPAs, which should bring down its level of NPAs by P1.2 billion more.
Yesterday’s auction is the second time that the bank had held a successful SPV sale. The bank sold P11.5 billion of its bad assets in 2005. – TPT
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