H K For Sale

RCBC mulls sale of shares to HK company

MANILA, Philippines – The Yuchengco-controlled Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), the country’s fifth largest, is currently negotiating the sale of some 127 million common shares to Hong Kong-based CVC Asia Pacific as part of its capital raising plans for this year.

Sources from the central bank said RCBC is building up its capital from the sale of some 200 million common shares, of which 73 million worth P2.13 billion was taken up by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. last March, initially through a stock market cross sale from RCBC’s treasury account.

Sources said RCBC is presently in talks with CVC Asia Pacific for the private placement of the remaining 127 million common shares.

The same sources said CVC Asia Pacific, a pan-Asian private equity company, is currently conducting due diligence review and targeting to conclude negotiations by the end of May this year.

RCBC have yet to seek BSP’s approval for the private placement and CVC Asia Pacific’s planned equity investment in the bank.

RCBC, documents show, is planning a capital raising strategy to prepare the bank for Basel 3 and to comply with the 50 percent aggregate equity investment ceiling by June 30 this year. This capital buildup involves the sale of 200 million common stocks to keep the bank’s aggregate equity investments within the allowed BSP limit.

BSP sources said the entry of IFC, which bought 7.25 percent equity in the bank and entitled it to one board seat, has already boost its core tier1 capital by more than one percent in solo capital adequacy ratio to 17.38 percent from 16.26 percent end-December. IFC also hiked foreign equity in RCBC to 14.16 percent from 7.45 percent.

RCBC has breached a BSP provision on aggregate equity investment ceiling of 50 percent net worth of banks. The bank has asked the central bank up to June 30 to comply with the limit.

RCBC exceeded the cap on equity investment when it acquired Merchant Savings and Loan Association Inc. which later became RCBC Savings Bank.

Sources said at the time, exceeding the ceiling may have been necessary since the move was important to its operations.

In December 2009, the BSP relaxed banks’ equity investments in financial or non-financial allied or non-allied undertakings by excluding shares of stocks acquired from the settlement of loans when determining compliance to ceilings on equity investments.

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