THE board of lender Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) has approved its stock-rights offering at the Philippine Stock Exchange to raise more funds.
In its disclosure, the bank said it will issue a maximum of 819.82 million common shares. Based on its closing price, the company can raise as much as P81 billion from the offer.
“Timing and size of the transaction are subject to other details, such as the offer price, and are subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, as well as market and other conditions,” the company said.
“The bank believes that the robust growth of the Philippines will continue to support the prospects for accelerated loan expansion across the various segments of the economy,” it added.
Metrobank seeks to capitalize on the growth opportunities of large cap corporates and especially in its core franchise, the middle market and small to medium enterprises segments. Rising per capita levels also bode well for the potential in the growing consumer space, specifically in credit cards, auto loans and home mortgage, it said.
Over the past six quarters, Metrobank has delivered over 20-percent loan growth, faster than the industry average.
The bank’s total asset base is currently the second largest in the country, and expanded by 16 percent to P2 trillion as of September 30, 2017.
“The capital raising exercise is expected to enable the bank to pursue these business prospects to sustain the loan growth momentum, leveraging on the bank’s sales and distribution network that has rapidly expanded in the preceding years. To that end, the bank intends to focus on enhancing customer experience through digitization initiatives and branch efficiencies,” it said.
A portion of the proceeds will be used for the acquisition of the remaining 20-percent equity stake in Metrobank Card Corp.
It claimed that its credit-card arm is the industry leader in terms of cards-in-force and receivables based on the latest data from the Credit Card Association of the Philippines.
The acquisition was announced in October 2017 and will result in the bank’s 100-percent equity ownership in the company. Metrobank has purchased a 20-percent stake from its joint venture-partner ANZ Funds Pty. Ltd. for P7.4 billion following receipt of approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which it was able to secure late last year. The remaining 20 percent is set to be completed by the third quarter.
The bank has mandated UBS and First Metro Investment Corp. as joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner.