A babbler website (Bilyonaryo) reported that a major Japanese group is seriously considering investing in a unibank in the Philippines which is looking to achieve trillionaire status. The babbler said the savvy Japanese group is on the hunt for bargain buys and synergistic possibilities and it believes that a local unibank might just fit the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon scanning our bank names, one key bank stands out as the most likely candidate for this \u2013 Security Bank Corp. (SECB). We note that asset-wise, it\u2019s only P160 Billion short of the trillionaire status with total assets valued at P840 Billion and at current price, SECB still remains one of the undervalued banks, trading at 0.60x P\/B (vs. industry average of 1.0x and peer average of 0.7x) despite the recent ascent of the sector due to rising rate environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We currently have a P\/B-based Target Price of P140.00 on SECB, implying a potential upside of 37% from its current price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n