Deutsche Bank rounding up potential buyers of Philamlife

Deutsche Bank has been rounding up the prospective buyers of Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife) and its subsidiaries, the local insurer’s top executive said.

Philamlife president and chief executive officer Jose L. Cuisia Jr. confirmed that the German investment bank has been going around and talking with the interested parties in the Philippines.

He said they hope that before the end of the year, “there will be something more definite.”

Deutsche Bank was tapped by global investment bankers JP Morgan and the Blackstone Group which, in turn, were hired by US-based global insurance giant American International Group (AIG) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to oversee AIG’s assets for sale, including Philamlife and its subsidiaries, with the exclusion of its non-life insurance operations.

Deutsche Bank will screen or pre-qualify all the interested parties to ensure their seriousness and ability in acquiring Philamlife.

The Philippine offices of international insurers Sun Life Financial Manulife Financial, and Generali Pilipinas neither confirmed nor denied having discussed with the investment bank their reported acquisition bid for Philamlife.

“Chances are it is our principals that are talking with JP Morgan or Blackstone,” one of them said.

Sources within the Yuchengco Group said that they had not been approached yet while representatives of the Ayala Group could not be reached as of presstime.

The SM Group, San Miguel and GSIS have also expressed interest in buying Philamlife.

AIG has up to 2010 to pay its $85-billion debt to the New York Federal Reserve, and it has to dispose of several of its international assets to raise the fund.

Co-ops tap PAMI

Philam Asset Management Inc. (PAMI) has been tapped as fund manager of the National Cooperative Mutual Fund of the Philippines Inc. (NCMFP), the country’s first mutual fund owned by the country’s cooperatives.

There are 70,000 registered cooperatives nationwide although less than 20,000 are still operating.

The cooperative mutual fund is similar to the GSIS Mutual Fund, which is also being managed by PAMI. Both are balanced funds, where investments made are spread out between the equity and the bond markets.

Initially, 98 cooperatives have committed to join the fund. It has a seed infusion of P100 million and an authorized capital of P400 million.

Each cooperative is expected to commit a minimum of P100,000 each or roughly P9.8 million.

“But the potential is tremendous, both as savings for the cooperatives, for individuals and the mutual fund industry,” Karen Roa, PAMI president, said.

The minimum initial investment to the new mutual fund will likely be between P2,000 to P5,000 for individuals, cooperative member or not. It is the same rate for those making investments with the GSIS Mutual Fund.

PAMI is presently managing funds worth over P17 billion.