PBCom for sale at P4.3B floor price

UP FOR REBIDDING. Interested buyers of Philippine Bank of Commerce, which is again being offered for sale after a failed attempt two years ago, have up to May 31 to submit their proposal.

Medium-sized lender Philippine Bank of Communications is up for rebidding to prospective new investors this month at a floor price of about P4.3 billion, banking sources told the Inquirer.

The Macquarie group, adviser to PBCom’s controlling stakeholders, recently sent a new round of invitations to several banks that might be interested to expand through a merger and acquisition, the sources said.

Interested parties were given until May 31 to submit a proposal to the key shareholders of PBCom who are willing to sell their shares at a minimum price of P25 a share, the sources said. This was the same level at which the shares were put up for sale in an earlier bidding.

Based on data from the Philippine Stock Exchange, PBCom has about 52.6 million common shares and another 120 million preferred shares to which the floor price of P25 a share would apply for this bidding. This means that PBCom is valued at about P4.3 billion, including the amount to be spent for the mandatory tender to minority shareholders.

Macquarie had attempted to auction PBCom in the last few years in line with bank shareholders’ commitment to Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. to turn over a controlling stake to a new investor five years after the state-run insurer supported the bank’s P10.5-billion rehabilitation in 2004. PDIC has contributed P7.6 billion to the bank’s rehabilitation program.

As no deal was closed since the last auction that began in 2009, management was instead given a new mandate to focus on strengthening the bank’s operations. Recently, however, a new attempt to bid out the bank was initiated.

Several banks confirmed receipt of such invitation to make a pitch for PBCom, a niche banking player mostly serving the Filipino-Chinese community.

PBCom ranked 22nd-biggest among the country’s 38 commercial banks with assets of P43.8 billion as of end-2010, based on latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. It had P8.4 billion in net loans and receivables and a deposit base of P27.6 billion.