THE Philippine National Bank (PNB) is infusing additional capital of up to over half a billion pesos in its joint venture with Japanese leasing and finance firm IBJ Leasing Co. (IBJL) to increase its shareholdings.
The Tan-led bank said in a disclosure on Monday that its board of directors approved and confirmed the additional investment of up to P515 million in PNB-Mizuho Leasing and Finance Corp.; IBJL is under the Mizuho Financial Group.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, will boost the ownership of PNB in the joint venture from 75 percent to 83.5 percent.
Shares in PNB skidded 1.52 percent, or 40 centavos, to close at P25.85 each amid the 1.68-percent dip for the benchmark index on Monday.
The joint venture of PNB and IBJL, which was originally named as Japan-PNB Leasing and Finance Corp., began operating February 1998. It is offering products and services in financial leases, operating leases, loans and receivables-discounting facilities.
In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission greenlighted the change of name to PNB-IBJL Leasing and Finance Corp. This, after the Japanese leasing company increased its stake in the partnership from 10 percent to 25 percent at the time.
The joint venture was renamed to its current corporate name in April last year.
This additional stake acquisition is among the recent moves of PNB regarding its shareholdings in subsidiaries.
In September last year, the Tan-led bank announced it was selling some of its prime real estate properties in exchange for P46.68-billion worth of additional ownership in PNB Holdings Corp.
The bank would be subscribing to 466.77 million shares of the holding company for P100 apiece. The transaction is set to bring the bank’s ownership to 99.46 percent in PNB Holdings.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas gave the go-signal for its additional purchase of outstanding shares in PNB Holdings last month.
Meanwhile, the PNB reported in December last year that it was selling its shareholdings, along with PNB Holdings’, in PNB General Insurers Co. Inc. (PNBGen) to Allied Bankers Insurance Corp. for P1.52 billion. The Insurance Commission approved the transaction in the same month.
PNB saw its last year’s nine-month profits drop by around 39 percent to P3.87 billion from P6.34 billion in 2019 for the same period because of higher provisioning for potential credit losses.
The bank has set aside loan loss reserves of P9 billion in the first nine months of 2020, which is six times more than it booked year-on-year.
Its capital adequacy ratio and common equity tier 1 stood at 16.40 percent and 15.67 percent, respectively, as of end-September 2020.