Four groups eye All Asia Plans

At least four groups have expressed interest in the possible buy-out of All AsiaPlans Corp., the pre-need arm of the debt-beleaguered All AsiaCapital group.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Non-Traditional Securities and Instruments Department said Pacific Plans of the Yuchengco group, AXA Insurance of the Metrobank group, the Chan group and global insurance giant New York Life have asked for information about All AsiaPlans, whose operations have been temporarily suspended due to non-compliance in its trust fund requirement.

All AsiaPlans is a unit under the highly-diversified local investment house All AsiaCapital and Trust Corp., one of the biggest players in the domestic capital market. Lately, however, the parent company got into financial difficulties on the servicing of a $17-million loan from International Finance Corp. (IFC), the private sector venture fund of the World Bank. IFC itself has a seven-percent stake in All AsiaCapital.

The financial woes of All AsiaCapital spilled over to its subsidiaries such as All AsiaLife Assurance and All AsiaPlans which similarly encountered cashflow problems. All AsiaPlans’ permit to sell, for instance, was suspended for failing to meet their trust fund requirement and was only allowed to collect payments and service existing planholders.

The SEC said the company was required to comply with its commitment to contribute at least P1 million per month to the trust fund to meet the deficiency as well as current contributions.

Also, the SEC has directed All AsiaPlans to transfer its trust fund from All AsiaCapital to another trustee, Equitable PCI Bank. Pending completion of the change of trustee, the company deposits its current collections to its bank accounts instead of All AsiaCapital.

The past year, All AsiaPlans ended up with losses of P125.679 million although its revenues from plan collections went up 56 percent to P122.195 million as the heavy toll of servicing its P112.6-million liabilities weighed down on its operations.