Landbank extends offer to by PDS stakes to March 15

State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) extended anew the deadline set on its offer to buy out several Philippine Dealing System Holding Corp. (PDS) shareholders to March 15, in its bid to gain controlling stake of the exchange. (File Photo: Lbpdasmarinas Branch/Facebook)

MANILA — State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) extended anew the deadline set on its offer to buy out several Philippine Dealing System Holding Corp. (PDS) shareholders to March 15, in its bid to gain controlling stake of the exchange.

The original deadline was in April 2018 but this was extended to January 31 this year.

“LBP extended offer period to March 15 due to request for extension from many PDS shareholders,” Landbank President Alex Buenaventura said in a text message Thursday.

The Landbank chief, however, declined to answer how many of their offers have been accepted.

“We signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with sellers,” he added.

Buenaventura has received the approval of the bank’s Board to buy 66.67 percent stake in PDS to further help the government improve the domestic capital market and ensure financial inclusion by gaining control of the fixed-income bourse.

The Landbank Board gave its approval on February 27, 2018.

Currently, Landbank has a stake in PDS through the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP), which is the third largest shareholder with 829,000 shares or 13.26 percent of the total.