Majority of the stockholders of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., the 10th largest lender in terms of assets, approved the plan of merging with thrift bank unit RCBC Savings Bank.
The board of directors of RCBC on Nov. 26, 2018 approved the planned merger and set a special stockholders’ meeting on Feb. 26, 2019 to submit the proposed unification for their approval.
“The merger/plan of merger was approved by at least 2/3 of the stockholders on Feb. 26, 2019. With the approval, regulatory approvals will be sought,” the bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Wednesday.a
RCBC said the proposed transaction would facilitate for the RCBC Group a number of objectives, including more efficient capital deployment, more efficient compliance with the Basel 3 liquidity ratios, optimal coordination between the branch banking networks of RCBC and RCBC Savings, medium-term improvement in the funding economics, and operational cost efficiencies.
RCBC Savings Bank is 100-percent owned by RCBC. It has a paid-up capital of P3.19 billion and 30,872,163 common shares.
Parent bank RCBC remains one of the biggest lenders in terms of assets. RCBC in 2018 posted a net income of P4.3 billion, unchanged from the previous year.
RCBC sustained its core business growth with net interest income increasing by 14 percent to P20.5 billion in 2018, accounting for 77 percent of the total gross income.
Excluding non-recurring income (trading gains), core income rose 26 percent from a stronger core business led by a double-digit growth in net interest income by 14 percent and fee-based profit by 7 percent.
The bank’s combined net interest and fee-based income now comprise 91 percent of the gross income.
“The quality of core earnings continued to improve with robust growth in net interest income and fee income. The bank’s balance sheet position is now stronger than ever. The success of the stock rights offering is just an affirmation of RCBC’s viability and long-term growth prospect,” said RCBC president and CEO Gil Buenaventura.