RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp., the ninth-largest lender in terms of assets, will conduct a stock rights offering in a bid to raise up to P15 billion in fresh common equity Tier 1 capital.
The bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Tuesday the board approved the planned stock rights offer at a regular meeting held Jan. 29, 2018.
“While current capital ratios of RCBC are above the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] requirements, the bank expects the proceeds of the rights offer to further strengthen its capital ratios under the Basel III standards and to support its asset growth,” it said.
The bank’s consolidated common equity Tier 1 ratio and capital adequacy ratio
as of Sept. 30, 2017 stood at 12.4 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively.
RCBC said it was well positioned to capitalize on economic growth in the Philippines, which it expected to be conducive to further loan expansion across industry segments and consumer spending.
“In particular, RCBC seeks to focus on consumer, SMEs, the middle market and the micro-finance sector, and to pursue sustainable loan growth by leveraging on the bank’s recently expanded and strategically-located branch network, especially in the fast-growing export processing zones [and areas outside of Metro Manila where the bank believes growth potential is strong and largely untapped],” RCBC president Gil Buenaventura said.
The bank plans to invest in technology to improve customer experience, broaden the customer base and increase operational efficiency.
The bank said the Yuchengco Group of Companies and Cathay Life Insurance Co. Ltd., the two largest shareholders of the bank, committed to subscribe to their proportionate share of the stock rights offer.
The statement further said the rights offer shares would be coming from the increase in the authorized capital stock of the bank, which was approved by a majority of the directors in aregular board meeting on Nov. 27, 2017 and by the bank’s stockholders.
“The approved increase will raise the bank’s authorized capital stock from P16 billion to P28 billion. This will be effected through an increase in authorized common shares to 2.6 billion from 1.4 billion,” it said.