First Metro Investment forms mutual funds for education sector

First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), the investment banking arm of top Philippine bank Metrobank, has formed two mutual funds with a combined capitalization of P300 million.

The two new mutual funds — First Metro Save & Learn Equity Fund Inc. and First Metro Save & Learn Fixed-Income Fund Inc. — are the offshoot of a joint venture agreement among FMIC, the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP) and the Marist Brothers of the Schools.

Under the agreement, the parties established First Metro Asset Management Inc., an asset management company set up to create and manage mutual funds that will target investors in the education sector, specifically the institutions and constituents under the CEAP umbrella.

CEAP is a national association of around 1,200 Catholic schools, colleges and universities in the Philippines. It has offices in each of the country’s regions and has over 65,000 employees nationwide.

Marist Brothers, on the other hand, is an international Catholic religious congregation with around 5,000 members in more than 70 countries. In the Philippines, it owns and manages schools and universities mostly in Mindanao.

FMIC president Francisco Sebastian said the joint venture is the platform upon which the investment bank aims to pursue its overall objective to be a prime mover in the development of capital markets.

Sebastian said the name "Save and Learn" demonstrates the alignment of vision by the joint venture partners. It is further envisioned that FMIC and its partners will collaborate to offer financial literary programs to CEAP’s constituents.

FMIC holds the distinction of being the only publicly-listed investment bank among the 44 member institutions of IHAP (Investment Houses Association of the Philippines).

It was recently hailed by Finance Asia, the leading financial markets magazine in Asia, as the Philippines’ best investment bank and best bond house in its 2005 Country Awards for Achievement.

FMIC was chosen because of its expertise in the debt capital markets. Since July 2004, FMIC played a major role in eight of the nine fixed-income deals executed locally that raised a total of P69.8 billion.

These key transactions included Ayala Corp.’s P7-billion retail corporate bonds, which holds the distinction of being the single biggest amount and the tightest spread achieved for corporate issue; Globe Telecom’s P3-billion corporate bonds; Unilever’s P3 billion; Filinvest’s P2.75 billion; and AEV’s P1.87-billion bonds.