PBCom to acquire bank, on the lookout for more

MANILA, Philippines–Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom), the soon-to-be financial arm of businessman Lucio Co’s growing empire, is on the lookout for bargain acquisitions in the vast rural banking sector as it expands its footprint locally.

The bank received the regulator’s approval to take over a rural bank, and is awaiting the green-light for a second. Talks are ongoing for the takeover of two more.

The company plans to fund these acquisitions, as well as its own organic growth, using fresh cash from Lucio Co, owner of the Puregold supermarket chain.

“There are over 500 rural banks. There has to be consolidation,” PBCom president and CEO Nina Aguas said late Monday. “It’s bargain hunting.”

PBCom currently has 72 branches and plans to open three new ones by the end of the month. By the middle of next year, the company expects to have 110 branches.

New bank acquisitions will also play a key role in PBCom’s physical expansion. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Monetary Board already approved the PBCom’s takeover of the Rural Bank of Nagcarlan in Laguna.

This will give the bank an additional six branches. And because the takeover will be done through the BSP’s Strengthening Program for Rural Banks (SPRB) incentive scheme, PBCom will get the regulator’s nod to open 13 more branches, Aguas said.

PBCom hopes to gain more branches from another rural bank, the acquisition of which has yet to be approved by the BSP, Aguas added. Also, talks are ongoing for two more rural banks, one in Luzon and another in Mindanao.