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After the shelving the planned merger, the Department of Finance (DOF) is now considering the public listing of Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
On Wednesday, Feb. 14, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto told Manila Bulletin that informal discussions have been taken place regarding the potential initial public offering (IPO) of the two state-owned banks.
Recto noted, however, that pursuing an IPO for a government-run company would necessitate legislation, but added, “that’s an idea worth considering.”
An IPO is when a company, normally a private entity, offers its shares to the public for the first time, allowing it to become publicly traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
“There have been informal discussions about it. But no decisions have been made so far,” the finance chief said. “[We] will have to do further consultations.”
Recto said that the public listing of Landbank and DBP would also play a role in developing the local capital market.
The DOF chief confirmed on Tuesday that the proposed merger of Land Bank and DBP is no longer being considered.
“Their mandates are totally different, so I think we’re better off with two of them,” the finance chief told reporters.
Former Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno proposed the merger of Landbank and DBP, to create the largest bank in the Philippines, with an estimated asset size of about P4.18 trillion and a deposit size of P3.59 trillion.
Meanwhile, Recto noted that the scrapping of the merger plan would not affect the DBP and Landbank’s minimum capital contribution to the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
When asked about the scrapped merger’s impact on DBP and Landbank’s ability to meet the minimum capital requirement set by the central bank after their mandated contribution to the MIF, Recto said, “If they have dividends this year then those can be part of retained earnings. It should be used to increase their capital anyway” — Chino S. Leyco with Xander Dave Ceballos
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