iBank income up 53% to P800M in ’05

International Exchange Bank (iBank) has recorded a preliminary net income of P800 million in 2005 after converting to the new accounting standards set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), a top bank official said.

The figure represents a growth of nearly 53 percent from the P523 million net income (adjusted to the new accounting standards) registered in 2004.

i-Bank executive vice president and chief finance officer Antonio Moncupa said the medium-sized commercial bank also wants to push resources up to P100 billion by next year.

At the end of 2005, total resources grew by 15 percent to P60 billion. At the end of 2004, assets stood at P52.4 billion from P43.9 billion in 2003.

"We need our resources to hit P100 billion to fulfill our expansion program," Moncupa said.

iBank issued between P2 billion, to P2.5 billion in Tier 2 capital unsecured subordinated debt papers after a series of roadshows nationwide.

The debt paper will be recognized as a lower Tier 2 capital which will be used by the bank to enhance its capital base in the face of new international accounting standards and for the expansion of its branch network.

It will be issued up to five tranches within a period of 21 working days, highlighted by a minimum tenor of five years with an option to expand to 10 years.

Proceeds of the float will bring the bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to 25 percent if the proceeds reaches P2.5 billion, and to beyond 20 percent from the current 17 percent, if it issues up to P2 billion.

Deutsche Bank AG (Manila) is the lead arranger and selling agent. Other selling agents are Multinational Investment Bancorporation and Unicapital Inc.

Moncupa said that part of the bank’s expansion plan is to increase by another nine branches its existing 72 branches aside from its 63 automated teller machines (ATMs) nationwide. It was ranked 20th largest bank in terms of total resources and 17th in terms of total capital in 2004.