Philippine National Bank (PSE:PNB) is putting up for sale a minority interest in its holding company that invests, develops and sells assets comprised mainly of prime real estate properties. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the Lucio Tan-owned bank said its board of directors approved a plan to sell a 14% stake in PNB Holdings Corp. through a private placement.

The wholly owned subsidiary of PNB serves as a holding company of Tan’s most attractive real estate assets including PNB Financial Center along Diosdado Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City, the PNB Center along Ayala Avenue in Makati City, as well as the 8,000-sqm property at the intersection of Makati Ave. and Gil Puyat Ave. also in Makati.

The spin-off of these assets to PNB Holdings from PNB via a property-for-share swap yielded a PHP 33.2 billion gain, boosting the bank’s net income to PHP 31.7 billion in 2021 or 12 times the end-2020 level of PHP 2.6 billion.