UOB to appeal court order

The United Overseas Bank of the Philippines (UOBP) said yesterday it will file an appeal seeking to reverse an injunction order issued recently by the Manila Regional Trial Court.

The court has ordered the UOBP, the United Overseas Bank Ltd. of Singapore (UOBL), and the minority group of UOBP led by the son of former finance secretary Edgardo Espiritu and Jolibee Food Corp. president Antonio Tan Caktiong, to refrain from participating in an arbitration hearing conducted by the Australian Commercial Disputes Center (ACDC) in Sydney, Australia.

UOBP and majority stakeholder UOBL said they have been evaluating options which may include appealing the decision or elevating the injunction order to the appellate court, UOBP officials said.

"We will start with one step and we may take it another step forward if the first attempt fails," the official added.

The same highly-placed official who asked not to be identified admitted that while the bank was not "doing very well, we are not losing money as claimed by some directors."

Earlier statements attributed to UOBP director Avelino Sebastian Jr. said the bank is losing P60 million daily.

"Common sense will point out that a bank with losses of that magnitude should have closed down long ago," the same official said.

Sebastian also said the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of the bank had reached 72 percent of loan portfolio. Based on its statement of condition released in March this year, UOBP registered an NPL of roughly P4-billion or roughly 59 percent of its loan portfolio.

Meanwhile, UOBP officials said claims by the minority group that the bank committed "unsound banking practices" were incorrect.

"UOPB management was not cited for unsound banking practices by the Philippine Deposit and Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)," they said.

Meanwhile, BSP deputy governor Alberto Reyes said the monetary authorities would keep their hands off the UOBP issue saying it is an intra-corporate matter. "We will not interfere, we will not intervene," Reyes said in an ambush interview during the formal opening of the BSP executive business center at the fifth floor of the BSP.