Philippine Bank of Communications pays first dividend in its history

The board of directors of the Philippine Bank of Communications [PBC 17.48, up 4.7%; 904% avgVol] [link] declared the bank’s first-ever dividend, payable on July 31 to shareholders of record as of July 9. The P1.00/share special cash dividend is coming out of PBCOM’s FY24 unrestricted retained earnings. In a statement, PBCOM said that the only other dividend that it has declared was a property dividend back in 1997, so this cash dividend “clearly demonstrate[s] the substantial improvement in the Bank’s financial standing over the past 27 years.” PBCOM was acquired by Lucio Co in 2014, and has had a universal banking license since 2022.

MB bottom-line: The special cash dividend comes after three high-profile officers tendered their resignations from the Co Family’s bank, including Erico Indita (the former Executive Vice President and Head of Branch Banking Group), Ronald Paul San Diego (First Vice President and Enterprise Risk Management Group Head), and Dreda Teresa Mendoza (Trust and Wealth Management Group Head). All of the resignations were listed as for “personal reasons”. Putting that stuff aside, it’s pretty weird for the bank to tout declaring one cash dividend in 27 years as evidence of some major turnaround. The dividend was categorized as a “special” dividend, which implies that the board doesn’t want shareholders to expect something similar next year. Mixed signals all over the place.

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