Union Bank of the Philippines headed by bankero Edwin Bautista received the green light from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for its stock rights offering that is scheduled to kick off towards the end of April.
The Aboitiz-led received a Notice of Approval issued by the PSE last March 17 to list additional shares of up to 800 million common shares with a par value of P10 per share via a stock rights offering to all stockholders as of record date of April 11.
Last March 8, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also issued a Notice of Confirmation of Exempt transactions confirming that the fund raising activity is exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Regulation Code.
Eligible shareholders are entitled to participate in the offering at a price of between P64.55 to P73.78 per share. Offer date will start on April 25 and end on May 6 and the tentative listing date is on May 16.
The listed bank said the final price will be determined on April 4. It has tapped CLSA Exchange Capital Inc. and ING Bank NV Manila Branch as the joint global coordinators and joint domestic underwriters for the fund raising activity.
Existing shareholders including Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEC), The Insular Life Assurance Co. Inc., and pension fund manager Social Security System (SSS) committed to fully subscribe to their respective allocations as well as to any shares not taken up by other shareholders.
The banks expects to raise gross proceeds of approximately P40 billion to partially fund the acquisition of the retail banking business of global banking giant Citigroup Inc. in the Philippines.
UnionBank edged other big banks and is spending around P55 billion to complete the acquisition of Citi’s consumer banking segment in the country by the second half of the year.
The deal involves Citi’s credit card, personal loans, wealth management, and retail deposit businesses as well as real estate interests in relation to Citibank Square in Eastwood, three full service bank branches, five wealth centers, and two bank branch lite units.
