RobinsonsBank eyes acquisitions

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Bank Corp., the commercial bank of the Gokongwei family, is in talks with several banks for possible acquisitions, a top bank official said.

RobinsonsBank president and CEO Reynold Gerongay told reporters over the weekend:  “We will acquire more banks.”

He said there are ongoing discussions with a number of financial institutions but he declined to identify them.

“We have a lot of talks (with other banks). Anything we can digest, (we will buy),” he said.

RobinsonsBank recently acquired controlling stake in Bicol-based thrift lender Legazpi Savings Bank which has 11 branches in the region.

For this year, Gerongay said they are planning to put up at least 12 new branches within Metro Manila where they have been granted licenses by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

To date, the commercial bank has 80 branches. Last year, it put up eight additional branches.

According to Gerongay, they do not expect higher income in the first few years of their operation as a commercial bank since most of their capital would be used for expansion.

“Our income last year was more than 10 percent but less than 20 percent, because when you are opening branches, it dragged your income down. We are also replacing our core banking solution with a new one, that’s quite expensive. All of these things taken together, we  not expecting much income, as long as we have a very decent return on equity, that’s okay,” he said.

He said their income growth is normally being supported  by steady increase in corporate/commercial lending activities.

Gerongay said there is also no need to raise additional capital for the bank.

“(We see) no need to (raise more capital) but should there be a need, we will. Because, (we are now) way above the capital ratio at 23 to 24 percent,” he said.

Founded in November 1997 as a savings bank, RobinsonsBank is majority-owned by JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the country’s largest and most successful conglomerates. The group owns Universal Robina Corp., Robinsons Land Corp.,  United Industrial Corp. – Singapore; JG Summit Petrochemical Corp., Cebu Pacific Air and JG Summit Capital Services Corp.

In 2002, RobinsonsBank acquired the branches of ABN Amro Savings Bank (Phils.), the licenses to operate them, and their deposit, auto and mortgage loan portfolios, making RobinsonsBank the country’s seventh-largest thrift bank at that time.

In 2010, JG Summit and RHI jointly acquired controlling interest of The Royal Bank of Scotland (Phils.).

As of end-September 2013, RobinsonsBank’s earnings registered at P335.9 million. Its total assets and deposits stood at P39.2 billion and P31.8 billion, respectively, during the period.