UnionBank rings up P10B for expansion push
MANILA, Philippines — Union Bank of the Philippines raked in P10 billion from a recent stock rights offering as it builds up coffers for expansion plans this year.
In a disclosure on Friday, the Aboitiz-led bank said it had completed the fund-raising initiative, for which it offered 327.12 million common shares at P30.57 apiece.
The stocks were issued by the bank and listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday. This transaction increased the financial institution’s total outstanding shares to 3.32 billion common shares from 2.99 billion shares previously.
UnionBank’s principal shareholders, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Social Security System, and Insular Life, fully subscribed to the stock rights offering
READ: UnionBank hikes capital by 70% to P60.3B
“The strong response from our shareholders to the stock rights offering underscores their confidence in our strategic objective to become the best retail bank in the country,” UnionBank president and CEO Edwin Bautista said.
The joint underwriters of the transaction were CLSA Exchange Capital Inc. and Unicapital Inc. Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. served as the capital markets adviser.
Strategic growth initiative
Proceeds from the fund-raising activities are earmarked for UnionBank’s strategic growth initiative, including its digital banking arm UnionDigital.
READ: Unionbank’s digital banking unit gets P900-M infusion
Last year, the bank also infused P900 million in fresh capital into UnionDigital to finance expansion plans and meet the growing demand for online services.
UnionBank saw its first-quarter net profits fall by 41 percent to P2 billion because of costs related to the Citi brand’s migration into the Aboitiz-led lender amounting to P1.1 billion.
Following the Citi acquisition, 1.5 million customer and transaction records were transferred to UnionBank’s platform.
As of end-March, its assets stood at P1.1 trillion while loans reached P521 billion and low-cost current account/saving account deposits were P431 billion. —TYRONE JASPER C. PIAD
