PDIC plans May date for sale of Exportbank assets

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) hopes to be able to sell the assets of the shuttered Export and Industry Bank in May, a top agency official said Monday. “We would like to be able to sell the assets by May this year…We will announce the bidding as soon as possible,” PDIC executive vice president for receivership and liquidation Cristina Que Orbeta told reporters in Makati City. Orbeta added that the PDIC is currently preparing to file a petition for assistance with the Regional Trial Court of Makati for the bank's liquidation. “We can start selling the assets even without the court order…. but the proceeds of the asset sale cannot be distributed without the court order,” she said. Orbeta added that one of the bank's most  valuable properties assets is the Export Bank Plaza near Buendia Avenue in Makati City, which could go for as much as P1.4 billion. Earlier this month the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' policy-making body, the Monetary Board, directed the PDIC to proceed with the bank's liquidation after the failure of two bidding attempts for its rehabilitation. The PDIC earlier reported that the net realizable value of EIB’s recorded assets, estimated at P13.65 billion, “is deficient by P11.02 billion to cover its liabilities aggregating to P24.67 billion as of Dec. 31, 2012.”— BM, GMA News