Banco de Oro completes One Network Bank takeover for P6.7B

THE country’s largest lender Banco de Oro Unibank has completed its acquisition of Consunji-led One Network Bank Inc. (ONB), a leading rural bank in the country, for an estimated value of P6.67 billion.

Sy family-led BDO said it had concluded its purchase of 99.59 percent of ONB through a share-swap deal, the bank disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

BDO paid the selling shareholders led by the Consunji family using its own stocks as currency with the transfer of about 64.5 million common shares. Based on the closing price of P103.50 per share on Monday, the last trading day before the deal was announced, ONB was valued by BDO at around P6.67 billion.

This deal also implied that the Consunji group will henceforth own around 1.77 percent of BDO.

To prevent any significant dilution, BDO replaced the shares used to pay for this acquisition with the issuance of an equal number of new shares from its unissued capital stock through a top-up and borrowing transaction with a substantial BDO shareholder.

To seal this acquisition, BDO also conducted a tender offer to the minority shareholders of ONB in compliance with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission since ONB is deemed a public company with over 1,700 shareholders.

ONB is a rural bank with 98 active branches focused in the Mindanao region.

“The acquisition of ONB expands the regional presence of BDO in the country, particularly in its target market in the southern Philippines and opens up business lines for BDO,” the disclosure said.

ONB, a proponent of “inclusive” banking, has small and medium enterprise as well as micro-banking offices in the Mindanao and Panay areas.

The rural bank had total assets of P28.1 billion, net loans of P19.7 billion and a deposit franchise amounting to P17.9 billion as of end-September 30, 2014.

Prior to this acquisition, ONB has successfully built a profitable business franchise through the years, providing returns of over 20 percent to its shareholders. In Mindanao, the bank has done well under the tagline “pera ng Mindanao, para sa Mindanao (money from Mindanao, for Mindanao).”