Allen & Overy and Puyat Jacinto & Santos Law have represented the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) on its 36.9 billion Philippine peso (around $783 million) purchase of a 20 percent stake in Security Bank Corp., which turned to Picazo Buyco Tan Fider & Santos for legal counsel.
The acquisition, which is expected to close in the first half of 2016, will be the largest equity investment by a foreign investor in a Philippine financial institution to date.
Security Bank is the fifth-biggest bank in the Philippines by market value, while BTMU is the commercial banking division of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest lender in terms of assets.
The deal also represents one of the first forays of a foreign investor into the country’s banking industry after bank ownership laws were liberalised in July 2014. The relaxed rules permit foreign banks to gain full ownership of a Philippine bank instead of the previous 60 percent maximum.
A cross-border team is handling the transaction for Allen & Overy, headed by Simon Black in Tokyo, Alun Evans in Singapore and David Norman in Hong Kong.
PJSLaw partner Ramil E. Bugayong, who also co-heads the banking, finance and capital markets group, oversaw the deal for the firm.
The Security Bank agreement comes after BTMU bought a 77 percent holding in Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya and a 20 percent stake in VietinBank, a major state-owned commercial bank in Vietnam, expanding the Tokyo-headquartered financial bank’s presence in Southeast Asia.
Security Bank, which is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, plans to use the incoming funds to boost its financial, retail and wholesale markets. It is also looking into doubling the number of its branches – currently numbering at 262 – by 2020.
