Done deal
       The merger of Union Bank and iBank is a done deal almost, anyway.
       The majority shareholders of iBank, namely Enrique Razon of International Container Terminal Services Inc., who owns 16 percent; iVantage, at 20 percent; JPKC Equities, at 25 percent; and Greenhills Properties of the Ortigas-Lanuza family, at 8.9 percent, have agreed to accept the offer of Unionbank to purchase “at 67 percent up to 100 percent” at a price of P42.50 per share. The transaction is worth some P13.5 billion, for the almost 70 percent, or exactly 69.9 percent, representing the combined holdings of the four shareholders.
       The mandatory tender offer, about 30 percent, that Unionbank has to go through in compliance with the requirements of the Philippine Stock Exchange, has been complied with.
       All that remains to be finalized is due diligence, which will take two to three weeks, or a month max.
       Since he’s going to be axed anyway, though of no fault of his own, Sy might as well avail himself of the one-month wait max for the completion of the merger, to enjoy his accumulated vacation leaves. I’m sure Sy has plenty of unavailed vacation leaves. Presidents and CEOs don’t get where they are by going on vacations, you know.
       But then, he can’t afford to just fade out because he’s not just leaving his fate to the wheel.
       Not that he needs the job, but Sy is said to be hoping (against hope?) that he would be “kicked upstairs” and be given an honorific title of vice chairman or something like that of the “stronger and bigger” Union Bank.
       Sy holds 4 percent of iBank. I wonder how far, or how high that would take him if he uses his shares to bargain for a “kicked-upstairs” solution to his unemployment problem. After all, he had served iBank well.

‘Wise men’
       Meanwhile, Sy is not just sitting down waiting for the wheel of fortune to overrun him.
       We learn from four-time BAP president and former Prime Minister Cesar E.A. Virata that while the final details of the Union Bank-iBank merger has yet to be sealed, Sy is calling for a BAP council meeting to discuss his situation.
       Sy will be seeking guidance from the council, otherwise acknowledged as the “wise men of banking,” composed of former BAP presidents, among them, Virata; Placido Mapa, vice chairman of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co.; Deogracias “Sonny” Vistan, former president of Equitable-PCI Bank and Solid Bank; Xavier Loinaz, former president and now member of the board of directors of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI); Rafael Buenaventura, former governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP); and Octavio Espiritu, former president of Far East Bank and Trust Co. and now director of BPI.
       It is unlikely that the Sy-called meeting will have a 100-percent council attendance. The council will definitely miss the counsel of Governor Paeng—a staunch advocate of mergers and consolidations, his first-ever policy pronouncement when he assumed the BSP post—is in the United States for a medical check-up.
       However, a meeting of Sy with the council, if it pushes through, looks like it would be a waste of time of all concerned.
       At this point, Virata is already making assurances that Sy’s departure would not cause a leadership vacuum at BAP.
       “The BAP is for continuity. This is the reason why leadership in the BAP is not based on personalities but on membership of the bank or the financial institution,” Virata explains. The former Prime Minister knows where he speaks of, having been around much longer than everyone in the BAP council, or anyone from any bank for that matter. That’s why he’s the self-proclaimed, popularly acclaimed historian of the BAP.
       On that note, it looks like the vice president of the association, Aurelio Montinola, president of BPI, who answers to the unlikely nickname of “Gigi,” is 99.9-percent sure—no, make that 101 percent—of taking over the BAP presidency.
       And who would succeed Gigi? Well, Virata explains that the other members of the board can elect a new vice president from among themselves.
       If it comes to pass that Gigi Montinola will become BAP president, he will be the second BPI president who will lead the BAP in recent years, after Xavier Loinaz, the son of former Social Works Secretary Mita Pardo de Tavera.
       Gigi, the banking sector trusts, will competently handle the prevailing burning concerns of the industry, among these the controversial Philippine Dealing Exchange, the electronic platform for government securities and other debt instruments trading; the imposition of the tax on foreign currency deposit units still hanging before the joint congressional committee; and the full enforcement of the third-party custodianship on government securities investments of the general public and banks as well.
       As Gigi Montinola assumes the BAP mantle, Victor Valdepeñas, incumbent Union Bank president/CEO, will get the satisfaction of heading the merged banks—his just reward for having steered the buyout.
       For his part, Ramon Sy will be at the outside, trying to look in.
       The funny thing here—except that it’s not funny at all—is that the rank and file of iBank know not yet what fate awaits them. By gosh, these are the people who need their jobs most.
       But that’s gulong ng palad for you. When the wheels turn, it’s the small fry who gets crushed.
       Talk back to me at spinsipin@yahoo.com.ph.