PSE oks Metrobank’s P32B stock rights offer

THE PHILIPPINE Stock Exchange has approved a plan by local banking giant Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. to raise as much as P32 billion from the sale of new shares to existing shareholders.

The stock rights offering will run from March 23 to 27 this year. The offering will be priced on March 10 while tentative listing date is set for April 7.

Based on the indicative offer sheet, Metrobank plans to sell as much as 500 million shares with a par value of P20 per share. The rights shares will be taken out of the unissued capital of the bank.

Shareholders as of record date March 18 are eligible to subscribe to this offering. The rights entitlement ratio has yet to be set.

The lead underwriters are First Metro Investment Corp., JP Morgan Securities plc and UBS AG Hong Kong branch. HSBC Singapore branch is co-manager and co-underwriter.

This sale of new shares to existing investors will allow the bank to sustain a tier 1 or core capital adequacy ratio to risk assets of 13 percent even while expanding lending activities, Metrobank chair Arthur Ty earlier said. For this year, Metrobank expects to sustain a double-digit growth in lending.

As of end-September, the bank had a total capital adequacy ratio of 16.2 percent and common equity tier 1 of 12.1 percent, both of which are well above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ requirements of 10 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively.