Bank of the Philippine Islands, the third-largest lender in terms of assets, expects its merger with Robinsons Bank Corp. of the Gokongwei Group to contribute significantly to its bottomline and expand its customer base, a top executive said Tuesday.
BPI president Jose Teodoro Limcaoco said in an online media briefing the merger would also improve the bank’s core businesses.
“We think [the merger with] Robinsons Bank can add about 7 percent to BPI revenues and 5 percent to 6 percent to our net income,” Limcaoco said.
BPI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the proposed merger would unlock various synergies across products and service platforms, expand the customer and deposit base of both banks through the merged entity and enhance the overall banking experience of Robinsons Bank customers.
Robinsons Bank’s products and services cater to corporate, commercial and retail clients through its 189 branches and branch-lite units, including 14 branches and 14 branch-lite units of subsidiary Legazpi Savings Bank, 354 ATMs and online and mobile banking channels.
Robinsons Bank had total assets of P175.9 billion as of June 30, 2022, including net loans and receivables of P102.4 billion and total liabilities of P156.0 billion. It had total deposits of P139.0 billion.
The proposed merger is a statutory merger pursuant to Title IX of the Revised Corporation Code and Section 40(C)(2) of the National Internal Revenue Code, with the issuance of primary shares. Upon the effectivity of the proposed merger after receipt of corporate and regulatory approvals, the shareholders of Robinsons Bank will collectively hold about 6 percent of the resulting outstanding capital stock of BPI.
Limcaoco said the next steps would include the execution of the plan and articles of merger and obtaining the approvals of the Philippine Competition Commission, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The timetable for implementation of the merger cannot be fixed at this time as the same is subject to regulatory approvals,” BPI said.
Stockholders representing at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares of BPI approved the merger on Tuesday with Robinsons Bank, with BPI as the surviving entity.
BPI’s net income in the first nine months of 2022 jumped 74.28 percent to P30.5 billion from P17.5 billion a year ago on higher revenues and lower provisions. Return on equity stood at 13.73 percent and return on assets at 1.66 percent.
Excluding the impact of the one-off gain from sale of property in the second quarter and adjustments due to the CREATE Law, net income would have been P26.8 billion for an ROE of 12.05 percent and ROA of 1.46 percent, it said.
Total revenues grew 22.1 percent year-on-year to P87.5 billion, boosted by the 20.5-percent growth in net interest income to P61.6 billion.
