The lender indicated a preliminary price range of P33.73-P38.23 per share.
UnionBank is raising funds to help expand its digital banking unit, UnionDigital.
The bank, part of the family-led conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., is also in the midst of integrating the mega acquisition of Citi’s Philippine consumer assets, making it more competitive against rivals.
While the bank has grown significantly, future prospects were not reflected in its share price, which has plunged over the last 16 months.
This is UnionBank’s third stock rights offer since it closed the P72 billion Cit acquisition in 2022. It raised P40 billion that year, when shares were issued at P64.81 each.
In February 2023, UnionBank completed a P12 billion stock rights offer after issuing shares at P56.88 each.
Stock rights offerings are typically priced at discount and this was no different with an implied discount range of 7.9 percent to as much as 18.7 percent, based on the bank’s closing price on Friday.
Other major details such as the number of shares on offer and the entitlement ratio—which pertains to the rights shares each stockholder can buy—were not yet detailed.
The offer will be launched soon as UnionBank indicated that shares will be priced on May 2 this year.
The ex-date is expected on May 8 while the offer period will run from May 16-24. The shares will be listed on May 31, 2024.
The deal is being arranged by lead underwriters CLSA Exchange Capital and Unicapital Inc.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
