SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States?The Lucky Group of Companies?a San Francisco-based diversified conglomerate founded by Rene Medina and principally operated by his sons, Rommel and Ruell?announced it has acquired controlling shares of Mission National Bank (MNB) from ATR KimEng (ATRK) Financial Corp., a Philippine company.
The Lucky Group previously owned 23 percent of the outstanding shares of MNB, a full-service bank operating since 1982 in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the sale of ATRK?s 40 percent ownership in MNB, the Lucky Group now holds a 63- percent controlling ownership of the bank.
?I am pleased with this move by my sons,? the Medina patriarch said. ?This investment very well compliments the businesses that they operate under the Lucky Group.?
Brothers Rommel and Ruell added that the acquisition further strengthens their investment portfolio, which in turn enhances the continued viability and profitability of the six companies they own and operate.
?We could not have made a more sound business decision than to further our investment in a bank like MNB, which maintains a consistently high-quality balance sheet and a reputation of excellence in banking operations and customer service in the Bay Area,? they said.
MNB, a full-service commercial bank with over $180 million in assets as of September last year, posted a net income of $1.1 million for the first nine months of 2009, or $2.46 per share. It is certified as one of the best performing banks in California and an IDC Financial ?Superior? rated bank.
MNB operates two branches in San Francisco, and one in the neighboring city of Berkeley.
Diversified firms
The Lucky Group of Companies, on the other hand, comprises of Lucky Money, Lucky Chances Casino, Lucky Tours and Travel, Lucky Check Cashing, Lucky PayDay and Lending, and Lucky Comm.
Headquartered in downtown San Francisco, Lucky Money Inc. is a worldwide money transfer firm that caters to the Filipino market in the United States, as well as to the country?s Indian, Asian, and Latin American communities. It maintains 100 wholly-owned and agent-operated money remittance centers located in more than 40 major US cities spread across 13 states.
Lucky Chances Casino, which the older Medina founded in 1998 in the Bay Area town of Colma, is the first and only Filipino-owned gaming establishment in the United States. Lucky Chances is not only known for the superior facilities and service that its 50-table card room offers, but it has also led in good corporate citizenship as a major business taxpayer in California and as donor of numerous charities in the US and in the Philippines.
ATRK shares formerly LBC?s
The MNB shares acquired by the Lucky Group from ATR (which stands for Ramon Arnaiz, Manuel Tordesillas, and Lorenzo Roxas) Kim Eng Financial Corp. were originally held by the LBC Global Corporation, a Philippine company principally owned by Carlos R. Araneta.
LBC subsequently transferred said shares, which represented a 49-percent stake at MNB, to ATRK in 2007.
ATRK is a diversified financial services conglomerate that has subsidiaries in three business segments: capital markets, insurance, and real estate. Its shares are traded in the Philippine Stock Exchange as ?ATRK.?
In 1990, Araneta engaged ATR to search for investment banking assistance on behalf of his LBC enterprises. The partnership so flourished as to enable ATR and ATR Kim Eng Capital Partners Inc.?a key player in financial advisory and corporate finance?to own 10 percent of LBC holding company registered in Delaware (US) called PMHI Holdings Corporation, otherwise known as LBC Global Corp.
The LBC Group of Companies is primarily engaged in cargo forwarding, dollar remittance, and banking services in the Philippines.
