Union Bank sets SRO price at P64.81/ share
By JAMES A. LOYOLA
Union Bank of the Philippines has set the price for its P40-billion stock rights offering at P64.81 per share, close to the bottom of the indicative price range of P64.55 to P73.78 per share.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said the offer price was determined based on the 15-day volume-weighted average price of the Union Bank’s common shares traded on the Exchange, subject to a discount of 30 percent.
The bank has also set the entitlement ratio at 1 rights share for every 2.4708 shares owned, translating to 617.19 million rights shares based on its outstanding capital of 1.52 billion shares. It had allotted up to 800 million shares for the SRO.
The ex-rights date for the SRO has been set for Apr. 6 while the record date will be on Apr. 11, 2022. The offer period will run from Apr. 25 to May 6, 2022.
Union Bank said it intends to use the proceeds from the rights offer primarily to partially fund the acquisition of the consumer banking business of Citigroup, Inc. in the Philippines, and if any amount of net proceeds is remaining, for general corporate purposes.
CLSA Exchange Capital, Inc. and ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch have been tapped by Union Bank to be the Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Domestic Underwriters for the rights offering.
UBP reported a 9 percent improvement in net income to P12.6 billion in 2021, translating to above-industry return on equity of 12.0 percent.
In an earlier disclosure to the PSE, the bank said its net revenues were at an all-time high of P45.1 billion, up 7 percent year-on-year (YoY).
Net interest income grew 4 percent to P29.8 billion due to the sustained increase in net interest margins (up 9bps to 4.6 percent). Lower funding costs from the record increase in CASA deposits supported margin growth.
Non-interest income also rose 14 percent to P15.3 billion. This was driven by higher fees, service charges, as well as FX gains, and trading income.