Lucio Tan Eyes Phil Natl Bk -Sources (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Lucio Tan Eyes Phil Natl Bk -Sources
by Dow Jones Newswires

PHILIPPINES; Source: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition,
Wednesday, 9/1/99

MANILA -- Tobacco and airline tycoon Lucio Tan aims to buy control of
Philippine National Bank (Q.PNB), or PNB, when the remaining 45.6% held by
the government is privatized late this year, sources say, reports the
Intelligence column in the Far Eastern Economic Review published Thursday.
The controversial tycoon is likely to lock horns with George Ty,
controlling owner of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Q.MBT), who also wants
to buy PNB to ensure his bank remains the country's largest.

Like Tan, Ty is known to be close to Philippine President Joseph Estrada.
To head off criticism that a deal would show favoritism from Estrada, Tan
has asked other ethnic-Chinese tycoons to join him in a bidding
consortium. Sources say that Tan's Asian Pacific Equity Corp. (Q.APE), the
listed arm of his Tanduay Distillers, will play a role in his planned
purchase of PNB.

URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=DI-CO-19990901-007267.djml