PNB names Ernst & Young as financial advisor

The asset management group of the Philippine National Bank announced the recent appointment for Ernst & Young Asia Pacific Financial Solutions LLC as its financial advisor in the development and implementation of a comprehensive strategy for its non-performing assets (NPAs) consisting of non-performing loans and acquired assets.

Under the engagement, Ernst & Young will assist the bank in the segmentation of its NPA portfolio into asset pools so that appropriate disposition strategies may be adopted for each asset category.

Earnst & Young is a global auditing and management consulting firm with extensive experience in financial advisory services. It has both local and foreign track record in corporate rehabilitation and corporate restructuring, financial advisory to financial institutions for NPA sales, and due diligence review work on behalf of investors.

Its most recent engagement in Asia pertaining to performing and non-performing loans include some of the biggest financial institutions in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and China.

For PNB, the engagement of Ernst & Young is expected to add to the bank’s efforts at resolving its P75-billion NPA portfolio. Specifically, this engagement is consistent with PNB’s "Good Bank – Bad Bank" strategy that seeks to strengthen PNB’s core banking business through the separate management of performing and non-performing assets.

At the heart of Ernst & Young’s engagement is PNB’s positioning toward a partial sale of its NPAs to one or several third party asset management companies as contemplated under the Special Purpose Asset Vehicle (SPAV) Law.