Banco De Oro eyes takeover of shuttered bank

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Banco de Oro Unibank wants to take over the assets and deposit liabilities of Export and Industry Bank, which was recently placed under state receivership.

Already, BDO has submitted a written proposal to regulators, stating that the banking arm of tycoon Henry Sy is prepared to “move in immediately” and take over EIB’s estimated P14 billion in deposit liabilities, industry sources said.

The proposal is subject to the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.’s approval.

Only about P4 billion of EIB’s deposits is covered by the PDIC insurance.

Luis Reyes, BDO head of investor relations and corporate planning, confirmed that BDO had submitted a new proposal. Reyes said the terms were not the same as that of a previous proposal, since the new plan would “address the depositors first.”

Accoridng to industry sources, BDO’s proposal has a “complicated” structure, which has yet to be accepted by the PDIC.

Asked about the matter, PDIC president Valentin Araneta said: “Our immediate concern is to take stock of all deposits liabilities and pay out all insured deposits as soon as possible. We can not comment as of now on other issues.”

Under an earlier proposal, BDO would receive about P9 billion in “income support” from banking regulators to temper the cost of coming in as a white knight.

EIB had a long-standing deal with BDO covering the sale of assets and liabilities. Officials said the deal was disrupted by a court case filed by Pacific Redhouse Corp. against EIB’s brokerage unit.

A regional trial court has ordered the EIB unit to pay Redhouse P1.5 billion in damages (see related story on page B2-1).

Jaime Gonzales, chair of EIB, is hopeful that the deal with BDO—which he said was disrupted by the court case against EIB Securities—will be continued even when the bank has gone into receivership.

“At the end of the day, we’d like to bring depositors to safe harbor,” Gonzales said, adding that the turnover of all assets and liabilities to the PDIC had been smooth.  with a report from Bruce Rodriguez