THE merger between the Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and the Gokongwei family’s Robinsons Bank, with the former as the surviving entity, took effect at the start of 2024.
In a Tuesday Philippine Stock Exchange disclosure, BPI said that on January 1, 2024, its merger with Robinsons Bank “became effective after securing the requisite corporate and regulatory approvals.”
In September, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) approved the merger between the two banks.
The PCC found that the BPI-Robinsons Bank merger would not likely result in substantial lessening of competition in the banking sector.
The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also gave its go signal for the transaction on December 14, 2023.
The merger ultimately closed after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave its approval on December 29, 2023, according to BPI.
“All corporate and regulatory approvals have been obtained, and RBC and BPI merged, effective 1 January 2024,” the bank said.
In January last year, BPI’s shareholders approved the merger between the two banks with BPI as the surviving entity.
“The proposed merger with Robinsons Bank Corporation would unlock various synergies across several products and service platforms and expand the customer and deposit base of both banks,” BPI President and CEO Jose Teodoro Limcaoco said earlier.
“Apart from growing BPI’s client and deposit base, and expanding synergies, the merger will increase shareholder value by providing BPI opportunities to collaborate across the Gokongwei Group’s ecosystem, which includes market-leading businesses in food manufacturing, air transportation, real estate, and property development, and multi-format retail companies,” he added.
The BPI chief added that the merger would also expand BPI’s access to the Gokongwei network, especially to the Filipino-Chinese market segment, “which has been the significant advantage of our closest competitors.”
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