RCBC to raise $100M through overnight equity placement

The Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. plans to raise $100 million from an overnight overseas equity placement, the Yuchengco-led firm said Wednesday in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. The sale will be accomplished through a top-up offering in which the bank’s majority shareholder will lend secondary shares for sale to new investors, then later purchase the same number of primary shares to be issued by RCBC at a later date. The bank said the shares will be offered to foreign institutional investors at P60 per share at a minimum. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie and Maybank ATR Kim-Eng will be the joint bookrunners for the issue. RCBC also plans to issue $130 million in hybrid tier-1 notes in the third quarter of the year to augment its capitalization ahead of the implementation of Basel III rules, which will increase the capital provisioning requirements fort the banking system. The bank needs to raise $430 million to raise its capital adequacy ratio to 11.5 percent in 2014. It has so far raised $100 million from the sale of shares to IFC Capitalization Equity Fund, LP. The purchase increased IFC's stake in RCBC to 12.7 percent. — BM, GMA News