Now that the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has apparently mended fences with its minority shareholders, the state-owned pension fund is planning a full and complete disposal of its thrift unit within the first half of this year, GSIS President and General Manager Robert Vergara said.
Vergara said the invitation to bid for the GSIS Family Bank should soon be published in the next couple of weeks, with the actual public bidding scheduled within the next three months.
“It will be a complete disposal of our shares; the bank needs a strategic investor to seize opportunities amid economic growth,” Vergara said.
GSIS Family Bank was originally put up for auction sale in 2006, which was aborted because of a dispute with the bank’s minority owners.
Now, with no more claimants to the GSIS’s 99-percent stake in the bank, Vergara said the GSIS is confident that the thrift unit will finally be sold.
Vergara said several banks have expressed interest in buying the GSIS’s stake in GSIS Family Bank in 2011.
He, likewise, said with the liberalization of the banking sector, foreign investors might also be interested in the thrift bank.
Vergara said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas could also reinstate the incentives of GSIS Family Bank in favor of the prospective buyer. Such incentives include certain branching privileges, upgrading the bank into a commercial bank, and allowing the bank to continue accepting deposits from the GSIS.