First Metro teams up with Japan’s SMBC

THE METROBANK group’s investment banking arm First Metro Investment Corp. is teaming up with Japanese banking giant Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) to explore opportunities in the Asian financial markets.

In a press statement on Tuesday, FMIC announced that it had signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) with SMBC along with SMBC Nikko Securities, Inc. and SMBC Nikko Securities (Hong Kong) Ltd.
 
The MOI serves as the premise of the business cooperation between FMIC and the SMBC Group in exploring further opportunities in the Asian region. The key areas of collaboration between the two parties focus on the capital markets and debt-related transactions.
 
“The signing of this cooperation agreement between First Metro and the SMBC Group comes at the right time. With its robust economy and fast-moving market, the Philippines is ready to participate and compete in the international stage. This agreement will allow businesses and investors from either the Philippines or Japan to take part in the debt issuances of clients of First Metro and the SMBC Group. This MOI will definitely be a basis of the many business opportunities in the coming years,” said Noburu Kato, SMBC director, general manager and head of investment banking department for Asia.

For his part, FMIC president Roberto Juanchito Dispo said during the signing ceremony: “We are happy to partner with the SMBC Group, a respectable and prominent name in banking, finance, investment banking and related industries. I would like to express my gratitude and congratulations to both parties. This is just the beginning. More work has to be done to fully harness this MOI, so that both our financial institutions, and on a macro basis our countries, will benefit from it.”
 
FMIC has been operating for over 50 years in the Philippine capital markets. As of end-2013, its assets stood at P82.8 billion with stockholders’ equity of P19 billion, making it the largest investment bank in the Philippines.
 
Together with its subsidiaries, FMIC offers debt and equity underwriting to loan syndication, project finance, financial advisory, investment advisory, government securities and corporate debt trading, equity brokering, online trading, asset management and research.