MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines has received the green light from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to raise as much as P10 billion from the sale of shares to existing shareholders.
In a disclosure, UnionBank said PSE has approved the application of the bank to list additional shares of up to 200 million common shares to cover its stock rights offering.
The fund raising activity would start Sept. 10 and end on Sept. 21.
In October last year, the bank launched a P70 billion funding program consisting of offshore borrowings as well as domestic borrowings through the stock rights offering, issuance of long term negotiable certificates of deposits (LTNCDs), among others.
UnionBank has so far raised half of its $1 billion medium term note program, successfully tapping $500 million in November last year.
It raised P3 billion in February from the first tranche of its P20-billion LTNCD offering to improve the bank’s debt maturity profile and help grow its business portfolio.
Jose Emmanuel Hilado, treasurer and chief finance officer at UnionBank, earlier said the bank’s net income amounted to P4.7 billion from January to June, eight percent higher than the P4.36 billion recorded in the same period last year.
“We are ahead of our target for the year despite margin compression in the first half due to higher interest rates and regulatory compliance. For the remainder of the year, we expect recurring income to drive profitability. We anticipate margins to improve as loan rates start to catch-up against deposit cost,” he said.
The bank’s net revenue went up by more than nine percent to P12.7 billion from P11.7 billion a year ago, translating to a higher annualized return on equity (ROE) and return on average assets (ROA) of 12.8 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
UnionBank sustained its robust performance from last quarter due to double-digit growth from customer businesses.
Total loans jumped by 18 percent year-on-year to P313 billion, with retail loans accounting for 33 percent of total loan portfolio.
This boosted the bank’s total assets by 12.8 percent to P623.2 billion in the first half of the year from P552.6 billion in the same period last year.
UnionBank’s deposit base inched up by 4.3 percent to P452.9 billion from P434.16 billion, supporting the bank’s total resources in the first semester.
Last year, the bank’s net income slipped 16.4 percent to P8.42 billon from P10.07 billion in 2016 due to lower trading gains amid the volatile global financial markets.