RCBC Realty hikes capital to P2.89-B

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the increase in authorized capital stock of RCBC Realty Corp., the property concern of the Yuchengco family, from P2.22 billion to P2.89 billion.

Based on documents filed with the SEC, the capital increase was made to finance additional working capital requirements.

Out of the increase in capital, P620.21 million has been subscribed and paid.

RCBC Realty is a joint venture between Rizal Commerical Banking Corp. and Pan Malayan Management and Investments Corp. and Pan Malayan Management and Investments Corp. The company’s maiden project is the P12.32 billion RCBC Plaza along Ayala Avenue in Makati, the new home of RCBC. The project is a joint venture with the Government (of Singapore) Investment Corp.

The company was granted tax and fiscal incentives by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for its information technology building, the RCBC Plaza. Among the incentives were income tax holiday, five percent tax on gross and tax and duty-free importation of capital equipment, double deduction on capital equipment and employment of foreign nationals.

Based on its application with PEZA, IT activities can be housed in the two towers of the RCBC Plaza. One tower has 46 stories and the other tower has 41.

Other real estate investments of RCBC are in Lima Land Inc., a property firm involved in the development of a 440-hectare industrial park in Lipa City, and in KG Investments Holding Ltd. with the Koo family.

RCBC also has equity holdings in companies engaged in power generation, automotive assembly, thrift banking, and food manufacturing, among others. These companies are deemed leaders in their respective niches and are in industries with long-term growth potentials.

It entered into a joint venture agreement with Honda Cars and Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan and the Ayala Group to produce the well-engineered and popular Honda Cars for the Philippine market. Together with another Yuchengco Group flagship, the House of Investments, and the Enron Corp, it put up the Subic Power Corp. (SPC), a diesel-fired 116-megawatt power plant built under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

RCBC is one of the country’s largest universal banks with total resources of P139.26 billion and total net worth of P13.19 billion as of end-December 2001. In terms of number of branches RCBC, together with its wholly-owned subsidiary RCBC Savings Bank, ranked fifth with a countrywide total of 291 branches.

Despite the prevailing economic difficulties, RCBC proceeded with the implementation of its five-year plan aimed at becoming one of the top universal banks in the country by 2004. The plan supports a marketing strategy that will enable the bank to be at least in the number three position in the following markets: Export zones, consumer lending, the middle loan market, treasury services, asset and cash management services for the corporate and retail markets and the overseas remittance business.

RCBC started as a private development bank in the province of Rizal on Sept. 23, 1960. After three years of profitable business operations, it was granted a commercial license by the Central Bank of the Philippines.