S’pore state fund trims stake in BPI

GIC Private Ltd. of Singapore has reduced its stake in Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) to below five percent through a series of transactions at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) over the past two months.

In a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the state-owned Singaporean company now owns less than five percent of the country’s third largest bank in terms of assets.

GIC, wholly owned by the government of Singapore, is one of the world’s largest global investors with well over $100 billion in assets in more than 40 countries worldwide.

It was established as a fund manager with the sole purpose of managing Singapore’s foreign reserves.

The Singaporean firm sold 4.56 million shares of BPI valued at P512.23 million, but also bought 703,240 shares of BPI worth P79.09 million between Dec. 9 and Feb. 7 at the PSE.

“The transactions were part of GIC’s normal course of portfolio management,” it said.

Following the transactions, GIC said its direct and indirect stake in BPI was reduced to 4.998 percent or 196.89 million shares of the bank’s total issued and outstanding capital stock.

In May last year, GIC acquired a direct stake in BPI after receiving 45.63 million shares from Arran Investment Pte. Ltd. Despite the transfer, Arran and GIC Special Investments Private Ltd. retained 173.66 million shares of BPI equivalent to a 4.41 percent stake in the listed bank.

DBS Bank Ltd. of Singapore completed the divestment of its entire stake in BPI in November 2013 ending its 14-year investments in the bank. It sold its remaining 9.9 percent interest in BPI to conglomerate Ayala Corp. and GIC for P29.6 billion.

Ayala acquired the 5.6 percent interest in Ayala DBS Holdings, while GIC bought the other 4.3 percent stake. The transaction raised the interest of Ayala in BPI to 48.3 percent from 44 percent.

Ayala owns 73.8 percent of Liontide Holdings, giving it an effective interest of 15.7 percent in BPI via this vehicle, while GIC owns 26.2 percent of Liontide Holdings and an effective interest in BPI of 5.6 percent.

Ayala purchased the 10.4 percent interest of DBS in Ayala DBS Holdings for P25.6 billion in October 2012. This raised the conglomerate’s interest in BPI to 44 percent from 33.6 percent.

As of March last year, major shareholders of BPI are Ayala with 21.79 percent, Liontide Holdings with 21.26 percent, AC International Finance Ltd. with 8.68 percent, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila with 8.32 percent, Michigan Holdings Inc. 2.06 percent, and Mercury Group of Companies Inc. with 0.19 percent.