The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
Local lender Security Bank Corp. (SEBC) and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. (BTMU) completed the strategic partnership deal signed on Jan. 14, resulting in P36.9 billion in fresh cash infusions into SECB.
Under the deal, SECB issued to BTMU 150,707,778 common shares and 200 million preferred shares, representing BTMU’s 20-percent ownership of the voting stock in the bank.
The partnership was earlier approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Feb. 24. BTMU is now the second-largest shareholder of SECB.
Security Bank is now an equity affiliate of BTMU, with the Dy Group retaining majority control in SECB. In a special SECB board meeting last Monday, BTMU’s nominees Takayoshi Futae and Takahiro Onishi were elected to the bank’s board of directors.
Futae is the managing executive officer in charge of Japanese corporate credit of BTMU and based in Tokyo, while Onishi was deputy general manager for global corporate banking of BTMU in Japan. “We welcome BTMU’s representatives to the Security Bank Board.
We are happy to share with our customers and stakeholders the good news that our partnership deal with BTMU has been completed today,” SECB Chairman Alberto Villarosa said.
“With our bigger capital and the combined strengths of Security Bank and BTMU, we look forward to serving our customers better than before.” Go Watanabe, CEO of BTMU Asia and Oceania, said the strategic alliance with Security Bank is very much aligned with his bank’s expansion plan in Asia.
“We are very excited with the opportunity to work closely with Security Bank. We have started exploring various areas for collaboration, including work-site business and public-private partnership projects,” Watanabe said.
“By partnering with Security Bank, we can expect to expand our business platform and identify new business areas for BTMU in the Philippines.”
As a result of BTMU’s 20-percent equity investment, Security Bank’s shareholder capital increased to P90.2 billion pro-forma as of Apr. 1, from P53.2 billion as of Dec. 31, 2015, while SECB’s book value per share increased by 36 percent to P119.53 pro-forma as of Apr. 1, from P88.17 as of last Dec. 31.
This puts SECB among the five largest private domestic universal banks in the country by capital.
SECB said the additional capital will be used to accelerate the execution of its growth strategies.