Madrigals hit Scotiabank

The Madrigal family yesterday broke its silence on the controversy surrounding the sale of their shares in Solidbank to Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. after their foreign partner, the Bank of Nova Scotia, finally withdrew its, bid to stop the sale.

According to Consuelo Madrigal-Collantes, BNS was informed from day one of the Madrigal family's intention to entertain offers for their shares in Solidbank following the Madrigal's increasing perception that their investment was no longer providing the returns that they had expected.

The Madrigal family, Collantes said, even asked BNS if it was interested in joining forces with the family and selling their shares as a block.

According to Collantes, BNS never reacted to the Madrigal family's overtures. "There was never any verbal or written, formal or informal communication to us," Collantes said.

As such, she said the Madrigal family started entertaining various offers before eventually settling for the offer of Metrobank which was 2.5 times the book value of their shares. She said they received no communication until BNS filed a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Collantes said BNS was never forced to buy the 51 percent that was sold to Metrobank. She said, BNS was clearly informed that it only had the fight to first refusal over the 38.2-percent shares of the Madrigals. She said they received no response from BNS.

Collantes said the Madrigal family always acted on good faith and with the utmost propriety in its dealings with BNS.

Gisela Gonzales, vice chairman of Solidbank, said that up until the sale to Metrobank, the Madrigal's dealings with BNS were always fair and just and that "they were good partners for 11 years."

The Madrigal family will formally turn over their six board seats in Solidbank to the nominees of Metrobank next week in a regularly scheduled board meeting of Solidbank. They expressed hope that BNS would not take any further action against them so that the dispute does not escalate and affect the operations of the bank any further.

As far as the Madrigals are concerned, there is just the formal turnover and they are then completely out of Solidbank.