Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. also known as Banco de Oro and BDO, is a major bank in the Philippines. It is the second-largest bank in the Philippines in terms of assets and is owned by the SM Group of Companies, one of the country's largest conglomerates and owner of the SM chain of malls. The bank is the product of the Banco de Oro-Equitable PCI Bank merger after the boards of both Banco de Oro Universal Bank and Equitable PCI Bank agreed to merge on December 27, 2006. For a while, the entity was known as Banco de Oro-EPCI, Inc., but announced that it would go by the name Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. starting February 2007.

Ownership

• PCD Nominee Corporation: 51.58% (35.79% foreign, 15.79% Filipino)
• SM Investments Corporation: 33.10%
• Shoemart: 3.90%
• SM Development Corporation: 2.99%
• United Overseas Bank: 2.33%
• Primebridge Holdings: 2.09%
• Others (includes public stock): 4.01%

Competition

BDO's main competitors are major Philippine banks like Metrobank, BPI, Land Bank of the Philippines and Philippine National Bank.

Recent events

P1.1-billion IPO

On January, 2008, Viva Films chairman Vic del Rosario announced that Viva Communications expects to raise P1.1 billion (1 US dollar = 41.48 pesos) through approval of the initial public offering (IPO) by the Philippine Stock Exchange, on listing date of March 5. It plans to sell up P 92.8 million new shares and P 49.9 million secondary shares at P 12.93 / share (offer is 35% of the company's issued and outstanding capital stock). It appointed Banco de Oro (BDO) Capital and Investment Corporation as lead underwriter and Abacus Capital and Investments Corporation as co-lead underwriter. Viva's net income was P 121 million for January to October, 2007, double its 2006 earnings and projects net profit of P 330 million this year.

Stable outlook

On February 1, 2008, Fitch Ratings announced: "The Outlook on BDOU's ratings is stable given a benign economic environment. And while integration risk is a factor, a successful merger of the two banks will provide ratings momentum, if combined with some capital strengthening in particular; BDO will particularly benefit from EPCI's good franchise among commercial entities and consumers, and well developed operations in fee-generating areas such as trust banking, remittances and credit cards. Significant revenue and cost synergies should arise from the integration of the two banks, due to complete by mid-2008, as led by BDO's very competent and driven management; BDO will raise P 10 billion of Tier 2 capital, and boosting its capital adequacy ratio by 2 percent to 3 percent; With the completion of the merger, BDOU will have a network of 680 branches and 1,200 automated teller machines.

Lehman Brothers' exposure

On September 17, 2008, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. announced "due to the uncertainty relating to the financial condition of Lehman Brothers, Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. is setting aside provisions totalling 3.8 billion pesos (80.9 million dollars) to cover its exposure to said entity." Banco de Oro failed to disclose the extent of its exposure to Lehman paper, stating "only that its balance sheet should be adequately covered from potential losses arising from its Lehman exposure. The provisions will come from reallocation of excess reserves and from additional provisions in the current period." Banco de Oro, capitalised at P 89.8 billion, closed 15.4% down to P 33. Banco de Oro Unibank said, however, on September 19 "it had a total exposure of $ 134 million to bankrupt U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers: This represents the face value of securities held by the bank. Prior to Sept. 15, 2008, this exposure had been reduced through mark-to-market adjustments and hedging transactions." The BSP data revealed Banco de Oro set aside a buffer equivalent to 60% of its exposure.

Notes

See also

• Banco de Oro-Equitable PCI Bank merger
• Banco de Oro Universal Bank
• Equitable PCI Bank
• Expressnet (the BDO ATM network)
• List of Philippine companies
• Megalink (the BDO ATM network)
• SM Group of Companies

External links

• Banco de Oro
• Reuters, BDO Profile
• Reuters, Stock Quote