Espiritu group talks to ‘white knight’ for UOB

After getting an injunction from the Manila Regional Trial Court, the minority group of the United Overseas Bank of the Philippines (UOBP) said it is prepared to present a "white knight" that would help resurrect the bank, or take over the unfulfilled purchase agreement of the foreign partner.

In a press briefing yesterday, UOBP director Alfonso Reyno said they have been approached by a foreign bank that expressed interest in acquiring the bank after the ownership issue has been resolved.

"There were several serious inquiries if the Singaporeans withdrew from (acquiring) the bank," Reyno said, adding that there remain some "white knights" interested in the bank.

The court injunction obtained by the minority group forces all the parties concerned to desist from getting involved in an arbitration case with the Australia Commercial Disputes Center (ACDC) in Sydney, Australia.

The arbitration case was filed by the United Overseas Bank Ltd. of Singapore (UOBL), the foreign partner and majority stakeholder of UOBP, with the ACDC to decide on the investors’ agreement signed by both parties in 1999.

UOBL took control of the bank, then known as Westmont Bank, in 1999 after it agreed to pay P1.6 billion to the Espiritu group. It has since been known as the UOBP with the minority group headed by John B. Espiritu, the son of the former finance secretary Edgardo Espiritu.

The UOBL controls 67 percent of UOBP while the minority Espiritu group headed by the group of Espiritu and Jollibee Foods Corp. president Antonio Tan Caktiong controls the remaining 33 percent.

The minority group claims that it had not been paid P1.4 billion of the agreed-upon price of P1.6 billion by the Singaporeans due to what the Espiritu group claims as unfair conditions.

The payment was supposed to come from the bank’s "uncollectible or political loans" worth the same amount, and of which ironically was agreed upon by the minority group.

However, the Monetary Board (MB) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) disallowed that arrangement as the UOBL could not pay the P1.4 billion in the form of the bank’s loans "which is not yet in their hands." Likewise, the form of payment was not included in the rehabilitation plan submitted to the MB.

Reyno said the so-called political loans were borrowings by two senators, a lady said to be associated with a powerful politician, and several business groups identified with the previous administration. However, he added that they have all made the necessary payments.

The UOBP director said that what they merely want out of the court injunction is for the UOBL to either pay them the P1.4 billion in cash or return the bank to them. "They got what they bargained for, and we want what we bargained for," Reyno said.