That bidder is strongly rumoured to be a consortium of AIG and Newbridge Capital. AIG was contacted, but said it couldnt issue a statement, and Newbridge couldnt be reached for comment.
Both institutions would make sense. AIG is headed in the Philippines by Joseph Cuisa, who was not only the former chairman of Far East Bank, but is a former central bank governor. Meanwhile, Newbridge has already made a significant bank purchase of Korea First Bank and views banking as one of its specialties. The other contenders are BPI and Metrobank. If either of these merged with Equitable PCI they would create a megabank with a 25% market share.
Equitable PCI is...
