GSIS to open bids for stake in thrift bank on July 3

THE GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System is set to announce on July 3 the best offer for its stake in GSIS Family Bank, which the state pension fund is again trying to dispose of through a second round of negotiated sale.

The GSIS’ investment bids and awards committee (Ibac) said in a June 26 advisory that the financial offers and the corporate documents provided in the guidelines for the negotiated sale of the pension fund’s stake in GSIS Family Bank must be submitted to its secretariat by 3 p.m. on June 30.

Prospective buyers should also submit to the Ibac before 3 p.m. on July 3 a certification issued by private stockholders represented by Renato P. Dragon’s heirs stating that they were willing to sell their stake to the winning bidder. The opening of the financial offers will follow.

Last week, the GSIS sought new offers for its controlling stake in the thrift bank, as the lone offer it accepted on June 22 was later found lacking requirements.

According to the Ibac, the documents submitted by private equity company Altus Capital Partners Inc. were “incomplete,” hence, “no party satisfied the requirements.”

Altus Capital Partners, which on its website claimed to be “a Southeast Asian-based investment banking and asset management firm focused on distressed debt and special situations advisory, investment and management,” submitted a P501-million offer, matching the minimum offer price, during the June 22 deadline for a negotiated sale.

It was also the floor price set when the GSIS tried to auction off the bank formerly known as Comsavings Bank last May. The bidding was declared a failure, as no one submitted pre-qualification documents.

A series of failed bidding in recent years prompted the GSIS to try disposing of its stake in the thrift bank through a negotiated sale.

The sale will involve 25,150,006 common shares, 48,758 preferred “A” shares, and 1.25 million preferred “C” shares.

The negotiated sale is subject to the condition that “the remaining shares of GSIS Family Bank belonging to private stockholders represented by heirs of Renato P. Dragon through Patricia Angeli D. Nubla, shall likewise be sold to the same buyer of the GSIS shares through a separate negotiation and agreement.

The GSIS has offered an incentives package to potential buyers under Monetary Board Resolution No. 224, which allows the new owner to open 20 additional branches and relocate 12 of GSIS Family Bank’s existing 22 branches anywhere in the Philippines; continue the bank’s authority to accept government deposits from the GSIS; retain GSIS Family Bank’s thrift banking license if the winning bidder is a commercial bank; merge with GSIS Family Bank if the winning third party is a thrift bank, with option to convert into a commercial bank, and convert GSIS Family Bank into a commercial bank if the winning third party investor is not a bank.