Landbank offer to buy PDS majority stake extended to Jan. 31, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The state-run Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) has extended by one more month or until Jan. 31 next year its revised offer to buy out existing Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) shareholders and gain control of the bond exchange.

In a text message Friday, Landbank president Alex V. Buenaventura said the offer period was moved from the earlier deadline of end-December 2018 as there was “no response so far” from PDS shareholders.

Last October, Landbank issued a new offer to buy shares at P215 per share, lower than P360 a share previously.

The downgraded offer took into account the P600 million in dividends that PDS issued to shareholders in June, even as the share price remained a multiplier of 1.5 times adjusted net asset value or the same as the previous offer.

The dividend payouts reduced PDS’s asset value, Buenaventura had noted.

Buenaventura earlier expressed optimism that a majority or at least 66.67 percent of shareholders would give their acceptance letters to Landbank before yearend to seal the deal and sign share purchase agreements with them.

During the previous offer, 43 percent of shareholders already submitted acceptance letters, such that they expect the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), banks and investment houses to accept the new offer as well, Buenaventura had said.

Buenaventura’s plan to acquire a majority stake in PDS runs counter to the planned merger of the latter with the PSE.

But Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who chairs Landbank, had lamented that the PSE was not being compliant with the conditions set for its merger with PDS.

At present, Landbank owns 1.56 percent of PDS through the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP).  /muf