PDIC order garnishing Araneta assets lifted

Key assets of the Araneta family, including a controlling stake in publicly listed courier and remittance service firm LBC Express Holdings Inc., have been freed up.

This follows the execution of an earlier court order lifting the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.’s P1.8-billion attachment and garnishment initiative.

The counter-bond delivered by the defendants will stand in place of the released properties and serve as security to satisfy any final judgment in the legal case.

This development frees up crucial assets and thereby eases the liquidity, administrative and operational challenges that had confronted the group following the attachment and garnishment order issued on Dec. 7, 2015.

The PDIC’s move was part of a collection claim on behalf of a defunct LBC banking affiliate.

Last February, however, the Makati Regional Trial Court issued an order to lift and set aside the writ of preliminary attachment and the garnishment after the defendants delivered a counter-bond.

The defendants to this case are: LBC Express Inc., LBC Development Corp., LBC Properties, Inc., Juan Carlos Araneta, Santiago Araneta, Fernando Araneta, Monica Araneta, Carlos Araneta, Ma. Eliza Berenguer, Ofelia Cuevas, Apolonia Ilio, Joseph Jeffrey Rodriguez and Arlan Jurado.

LBC Express is a subsidiary of LBC Express Holdings while LBC Development is its parent company.

In line with the order, LBC Express Holdings disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday that RCBC Stock Transfer Department had effected as of July 13 the lifting of the attachment and garnishment tag on 1.2 billion shares in LBC Express Holdings—equivalent to an 84.5 percent stake—alongside the lifting of the garnishment of PLDT Inc. preferred shares held by LBC Development Corp.

The sheriff of Makati RTC also served the lifting of garnishment upon the main offices of the following banks: Landbank of the Philippines, BDO Unibank, Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and Philippine National Bank.

LBC Express is a leading player in payments, remittance, courier products, mail, parcels and, cargo logistics.

It has operations in 4,400 locations in 30 countries in Asia-Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Europe, through various partners and agents.

Founded in 1945 as a brokerage and air cargo agent, LBC Express pioneered time-sensitive cargo delivery and 24-hour door-to-door delivery in the Philippines.

The group earlier wanted to embark on an initial public offering but this was sidelined by the woes of the affiliate thrift bank.

Last year, the group found a backdoor-listing ticket to the local stock exchange by buying dormant holding firm Federal Resources Investment Group Inc.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered the closure of LBC Development Bank in 2011, citing huge advances to LBC Express as part of the reason why the thrift bank had become insolvent.

The PDIC, as the mandated receiver of the defunct bank, is thus now running after such “unpaid service fees” estimated at P1.8 billion.