The family of banking and automobile tycoon George SK Ty is consolidating all its business interests under one company to take full advantage of fortuitous opportunities on both a domestic and international level.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. said its biggest shareholder, the Ty family, is transferring its shareholdings in the financial services giant to Grand Titan Capital Holdings Inc. through a share-swap.
The share-swap, expected to be completed by end-March this year, involves a total of 904 million shares representing 26.33 percent of Metrobank.
“The transaction is part of a general corporate exercise and is being done in anticipation of future growth opportunities,” Metrobank said, adding that this exercise will not change the beneficial ownership or effective control of Metrobank.
After relinquishing the chairmanship of Metrobank, identifying and addressing new business opportunities for the Metrobank Group of Companies has been Ty’s foremost concern.
Ty, one of the world’s wealthiest businessmen, has steered Metrobank into becoming the country’s biggest lender and the first billion dollar Philippine bank.
Aside from banking, the Ty family has interests in investment banking through First Metro Investment Corp., real estate (Federal Land), power generation, and car manufacturing (Toyota Motors).
Metrobank remains the country’s largest bank with consolidated assets of P648.8 billion. It has a local branch network of over 550 branches and 35 international branches and offices in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai, Singapore, Taiwan, the Americas, Guam, Canada, Austria, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.