PNB sets sights on state-run UCPB

SCREENGRAB from www.pnb.com.ph

Tycoon Lucio Tan-led Philippine National Bank is keen on bidding for United Coconut Planters Bank, where a controlling interest is slated to be privatized by the government.

PNB president Reynaldo Maclang said in a press briefing after the stockholders meeting of parent conglomerate LT Group Inc. on Monday that the bank’s board had passed a resolution authorizing the bank to look at participating in the bidding for UPCB.

Maclang said PNB was looking for “opportunities for expansion not only [through] internal organic growth” and that a potential acquisition—such as that of UCPB—would be a “faster way of growing the bank.”

As such, he said PNB was authorized to “study if [UCPB] is a positive addition to the bank.”

Asked during the briefing whether PNB was in discussions with Malaysian banking giant CIMB as suggested by Malaysian media, Maclang said the bank was not in talks with this group—or any other foreign bank for that matter—for any potential merger.

In late 2012, PNB entered into discussions with Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands for a potential merger but talks fell through as the patriarch Lucio Tan did not want to be left with a small stake in a merged entity.