Bank of Commerce IPO price set at P12

MANILA, Philippines — The banking arm of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has priced its initial public offering, which is expected to raise around 3.36 billion pesos.

In a letter to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Bank of Commerce Chairman Michelangelo Aguilar said the final price was set at P12 per share, lower than the originally quoted price of P12.50 per share. action.

The Philippine Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission have already approved the fundraising activity which will involve 280.602 million shares.

The offer period would run from March 16 to 22, while the tentative sign-up date is March 31. Bank of Commerce will have a “BNCOM” symbol.

Bank of Commerce would use the proceeds from the sale of shares to fund its lending activities, acquire investment securities and fund its capital expenditure requirements.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) previously upgraded the license of Bank of Commerce to a universal bank from a commercial bank, enabling it to offer a greater variety of services to a greater number of customers, by particularly debt securities and shares.

The latest BSP data ranked Bank of Commerce 16th among lenders in terms of assets with 195.36 billion pesos and 14th in terms of capital with 22.88 billion pesos at the end of September. The bank’s deposit base reached 167.46 billion pesos, while its loan portfolio stood at 91.47 billion pesos.

SMC, through SMC Equivest Corp., has invested an additional 5.5 billion pesos in the bank to boost efforts to upgrade from a commercial bank to a universal bank.

SMC President and COO Ramon Ang said earlier that the additional investments confirmed the conglomerate’s optimism and strong growth prospects in the banking sector, as well as its commitment to help Bank of Commerce broaden its business prospects and become a universal bank.

“We are confident that during this time of pandemic, the banking sector will be critical to our country’s economic recovery and will provide invaluable assistance to both our industries and Filipinos,” Ang said in a statement.

Ang, who is also president and chairman of SMC Equivest, said Bank of Commerce could “help meet the needs of businesses and consumers for loans and other financial services at this critical time.”

The SMC Group, through the San Miguel Properties Inc. (SMPI) real estate arm and the San Miguel Corp. pension plan. (SMCRP), owns 39.94% of the issued shares of Bank of Commerce.