Thursday, February 05, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
FILINVEST Development Corp. (FDC) has refused to disclose additional details on its deal with American International Group Inc. (AIG) as demanded by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday.
In a disclosure, FDC invoked the confidentially agreement between its unlisted banking unit East West Banking Corp., Philippine-American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife) and AIG-Consumer Finance group.
“The parties to the transaction are bound to observe strict confidentiality and prohibited from divulging the salient details of their agreement before or after signing,” Apollo Escarez, FDC vice president and information officer, said.
Escarez also said the share sale transaction between East West Bank, AIG and its subsidiaries requires the approval by the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The PSE has asked the Gotianun-led firm to provide additional information on East West sale agreement to acquire all of the shares of AIG Philam Savings Bank Inc., PhilAm Auto Finance & Leasing Inc. and PFL Holdings Inc.
FDC, however, said East West Bank and AIG are not bound to comply with the disclosure rule of the PSE, as these companies remain private.
“To require East West Bank to disclose the details to its parent company for the sole purpose of disclosing the confidential information . . . is tantamount to requiring East West Bank to violate its confidentiality agreement,” Escarez said.
“Disclosure rules of the exchange should not . . . defeat the privacy and confidentiality obligations of unlisted companies, even if they are subsidiaries of listed companies,” he added.
East West Bank earlier won the bid to acquire AIG-Philam Savings. With the merger, East West Bank will become the sixth largest credit card issuer in the country in terms of cards-in-force and card receivables.This would boost its assets to P63 billion from P49.924 billion as of 2008 and expand its credit card business from its current credit card receivables at P3.7 billion.-- Chino S. Leyco
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