AEV beefs up Union Bank stake

Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. heavily bought shares of Union Bank of the Philippines from the stock market in the past two days, citing upbeat prospects for its banking subsidiary.

AEV picked up shares of Union Bank while the overall market traded with caution due to heightened concerns over the fiscal crisis in Europe.

AEV on Friday revealed that it bought about 1.95 million common shares of Union Bank at P60.70 each. On Thursday, Aboitiz Equity also bought 5.72 million shares at P60.55 apiece.

This means AEV spent about P464.7 million of its cash holdings in the last two days to beef up its stake in Union Bank.

“We remain positive in Union Bank’s management team and business model,” AEV president Erramon Aboitiz told the Inquirer.

Union Bank’s shares were one of the most active stocks in the market, trading just below the bank’s 52-week high of P65.25.

Based on its latest closing price of P60.70, the bank has a market capitalization of about P38.93 billion. About a quarter of Union Bank’s shares are held by the public.

Union Bank came in as the country’s fifth most profitable bank in the first semester, chalking up P2.86 billion in the first six months—up by 29 percent from that of last year.

The bank grew its second quarter net profit by 57.7 percent to P2.15 billion from a year ago on the back of robust consumer lending and trading gains.

In the first half of the year, Union Bank’s loans and other receivables grew by 2.8 percent to P76.83 billion from a year ago, about a third of which consisted of consumer loans.

Union Bank ended June with total resources of P235.8 billion, of which P180.67 billion came from depositors.

Equity attributable to shareholders amounted to P37.3 billion.