Rappler·Philippines·Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at 07:19 AM

Banks, retirees, the business: Where will ABS-CBN’s P6-billion rescue go?

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Twelve days after ABS-CBN stockholders gather for their twice-postponed annual meeting on Wednesday, August 19, the latest extension on the company’s P5-billion loan from Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) will expire.

A month later, on September 30, another clock runs out: the latest extension on its P4.75-billion loan from UnionBank.

This time, however, ABS-CBN has something it did not have through much of the long financial squeeze that followed the loss of its broadcast franchise in 2020: investors willing to put P6 billion of fresh money into the media group.

The biggest check, P3.5 billion, is coming from I&C Holdings Corp., a private investment company that invests in long-term corporate turnarounds. Three branches of the Lopez family — under Crème Investment, Mantes, and Presta — have committed another P2.2 billion from personal resources. Lopez Inc., the family’s private holding company that currently controls ABS-CBN, is putting in P300 million.

But there is already a long line for the money.

The ABS-CBN parent company alone still owes roughly P8.4 billion to its banks, with another P3.4 billion in loans at subsidiary Sky Cable. That’s P11.8 billion combined, on top of billions more in obligations to suppliers and other creditors and the retirement and separation benefits still being paid out from years of retrenchment and restructuring. And after showing some improvement in 2025, the business itself stumbled again in the first half of 2026, with revenue falling, losses widening to P1.83 billion, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, a rough measure of the cash-generating capacity of the business, turning negative.

So when stockholders finally meet on August 19, the question hanging over ABS-CBN is no longer simply who was willing to rescue it. It is “where will the rescue money go?” How much will be spent paying for ABS-CBN’s past, and how much will remain to build its future.

There is another complication. The P6 billion has been committed, but it isn’t yet money ABS-CBN can spend.

Before ABS-CBN can spend P6 billion, it still has to get it

ABS-CBN and its prospective investors signed subscription agreements on August 12, with the board approving the transactions the following day. In exchange for the ₱6 billion, ABS-CBN plans to issue 1.64 billion new common shares — a massive number considering that the company has only about 900 million common shares outstanding today.

There is a catch: ABS-CBN has promised investors more new shares than it is presently authorized to issue. The company is presently authorized to issue up to 1.3 billion common shares, nearly 900 million of which have already been issued. So before the investors can put in the money and ABS-CBN can hand them their shares, the company first has to enlarge the corporate pie.

The board has approved doing that, but stockholders have not. And, curiously, the increase is not among the matters stockholders were told they would vote on at the August 19, Wednesday meeting. In fact, ABS-CBN’s definitive information statement filed before the rescue deal explicitly says: “No action is to be taken with respect to the authorization or issuance of securities.” That leaves an important procedural question hanging over the Annual Stockholders Meeting (ASM): When will ABS-CBN ask its stockholders to approve the share increase?

Under the Revised Corporation Code, an increase in capital requires approval of stockholders representing at least two-thirds of the company’s outstanding capital stock, at a meeting called for that purpose. Stockholders must also be notified that the proposed increase will be taken up.

That appears to rule out simply slipping the matter into “Other Business” on Wednesday and asking stockholders to vote on it.

Unless the company has another legally permissible route, it may have to call stockholders together again, this time specifically to approve the new shares, before seeking the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval and completing the capital infusion.

Does that mean another stockholders’ meeting? When? And can ABS-CBN finish all that before its bank extensions expire?

That matters because the financial clocks are already running.

The banks bought ABS-CBN more time, again

One of the questions hanging over ABS-CBN was what had happened to two large bank loans whose previous extensions had already expired.

The company’s newly filed first-half financial statements provide the answer.

BPI has again extended the maturity of its P5-billion loan, this time until August 31. UnionBank has extended its P4.75-billion loan until September 30. The extensions involved changes in some of the terms, including interest rates and collateral requirements.

But ABS-CBN has not yet obtained the longer-term solution it has been negotiating with its lenders. As of June 30, the company said discussions were still underway for a long-term refinancing that would replace the repeated extensions with revised terms acceptable to both sides. Because that agreement has not been completed, the roughly P8.4 billion in remaining loans at the ABS-CBN parent company are still classified as debts due within one year.

The company has been chipping away at the loans. It prepaid P500 million to BPI and P618.4 million to UnionBank in 2024, followed by P1.31 billion and P1.42 billion, respectively, in 2025. But principal payments slowed sharply this year: only P33.9 million to BPI and P45.1 million to UnionBank during the first 6 months of 2026.

Asset sales have done much of the heavier lifting. ABS-CBN’s sale of part of its Quezon City property, for example, was used to partially pay and service outstanding bank loans, as required under agreements with its lenders. Other mortgaged properties cannot simply be sold without lender approval.

This is why the timing of the P6-billion infusion matters.

The subscription agreements were signed on August 12, the board approved them a day later, stockholders meet August 19. But somewhere between the meeting and the money landing in ABS-CBN’s bank account, the company still needs stockholder and SEC approvals for the additional shares.

Did BPI and UnionBank know the P6-billion recapitalization was coming when they agreed to their latest extensions? Is completing the equity infusion part of the banks’ conditions for finally agreeing to a long-term refinancing? And, most importantly, how much of the P6 billion will the banks take back?

There is an important difference between using fresh equity to repay billions of pesos in loans and persuading the banks to refinance those loans over a longer period. In the first case, much of the rescue money goes immediately toward repairing ABS-CBN’s old balance sheet. In the second, more of it could remain inside the company to finance its recovery.

The answer could determine how much rescue money is actually available for everyone else waiting.

The retirees are waiting, too

Retirees are among the reasons the Lopez family said it decided to put in another P2.2 billion.

The three Lopez family branches that agreed to invest directly in ABS-CBN said their personal resources would help address obligations to long-serving employees while supporting the company’s recovery.

The first-half accounts show that ABS-CBN has not stopped paying those obligations while waiting for the new capital. Its estimated retirement obligation fell from about P3.81 billion at the end of 2025 to P3.53 billion by June, with about P516 million in benefits paid during the first six months of 2026.

But that does not answer a much more human question: who have been paid, and who are still waiting?

Among those waiting, at least as of the company’s previous disclosures, were retirees who had agreed to defer full payment because ABS-CBN did not have enough cash to pay everybody immediately. The latest financial statements do not identify how much of the P516 million went to these retirees, how many have since been fully paid, or how much remains due.

There is another number that can easily confuse readers. ABS-CBN’s retirement plan had only about P61 million in assets at the end of June, against the much larger P3.53-billion estimated retirement obligation. That does not mean the company suddenly has a P3.5-billion retirement bill that must be paid from the P6-billion rescue. The bigger number is an actuarial estimate of present and future obligations, and ABS-CBN has also been paying benefits directly from its own operating funds rather than only through the retirement trust.

What stockholders can reasonably ask on Wednesday is simpler: how many former employees are still awaiting full retirement or separation payments, how much is presently due to them, and how much of the new money will be used to finally settle those obligations?

If a substantial part of the Lopez family’s P2.2-billion contribution was motivated by these unpaid obligations, there should eventually be an answer measurable not just in pesos but in people.

And there are other bills

Banks and retirees are hardly the only ones with claims on ABS-CBN’s cash.

As of June 30, the group carried about P12 billion in trade and other payables: roughly P6.5 billion in production costs and other accrued expenses, P1.77 billion in trade payables, P1.44 billion in taxes, P639 million in salaries and employee benefits, P500 million in advances from stockholders, and about P908 million in other payables.

These amounts should not simply be piled on top of ABS-CBN’s bank debt and retirement obligations to produce one gigantic “hole” that the P6 billion supposedly has to fill. They are different obligations, due at different times and under different arrangements.

But together they illustrate the competition for cash.

ABS-CBN itself has so far been broad rather than specific about where the new money will go. The company has said the proceeds will be used for working capital, to strengthen its balance sheet, and for other general corporate purposes. A detailed schedule allocating the money has yet to be disclosed.

That makes one question particularly useful on Wednesday: can management now show stockholders the waterfall?

How much goes to the banks, how much to retirees and separated employees, how much to suppliers and other bills, how much is kept as working capital? And, after all of that is provided for, how much of the P6 billion is actually left to invest in ABS-CBN’s business?

The business needs rescuing, too

That last question has become more urgent because of what happened during the past 6 months.

ABS-CBN’s consolidated revenues fell 17% to P6.88 billion in the first half of 2026, while its net loss more than doubled to P1.83 billion from P852 million a year earlier. More significantly for a company already short of cash, consolidated EBITDA swung from a positive P568 million in the first half of 2025 to a negative P498 million this year.

That interrupts what had looked like progress in 2025, when ABS-CBN managed to narrow its full-year net loss by 23%, to P4.72 billion from P6.09 billion.

The problem is particularly visible in the business that is supposed to define the post-franchise ABS-CBN: producing Filipino entertainment, news and other content and distributing it through other broadcasters and digital platforms. ABS-CBN no longer needs to own the television network carrying all its shows; its programs can run on GMA, TV5 and other channels and platforms. But that content production and distribution business still lost about P1.24 billion in the first half and generated negative EBITDA.

This is the part of the rescue that cannot be solved simply by moving money around the balance sheet. Equity can repay a loan, settle a retiree’s claim, or pay a supplier, but what it cannot do indefinitely is replace the cash the business itself needs to generate.

For 6 years, ABS-CBN has been trying to answer one question: How does it survive without its broadcast franchise?

The P6-billion rescue raises the next one: What exactly is the profitable business that its new investors believe can emerge from that survival? Or, put another way: What business model is I&C investing P3.5 billion in?

(READ: TV ads decline, influencer marketing rises: Why it’s harder now for TV shows to make money)

That makes the identity of the investor putting up the biggest share of the rescue, the source of its money, and what it expects in return particularly important.

Whose P3.5 billion is it?

I&C Holdings describes itself as a wholly Filipino-owned private investment holding company that invests in long-term corporate turnarounds. Its P3.5-billion commitment accounts for more than half of the fresh capital coming into ABS-CBN.

Its investment is therefore not simply a financial lifeline. It is also a rather large bet that there is a business on the other side of this restructuring worth owning.

The precise size of that ownership has not yet been officially disclosed. ABS-CBN has disclosed the P6-billion total investment and the 1.64 billion new shares to be issued, but not how those shares will be divided among the four subscriber groups.

A simple calculation gives a useful indication, though it should not be mistaken for the final cap table. Dividing P6 billion by 1.64 billion shares produces an average subscription price of roughly P3.65 a share. If all investors subscribe at that same price, I&C’s P3.5 billion would buy roughly 959 million shares, giving it about 38% of ABS-CBN’s enlarged common share base.

The 3 Lopez family investment companies putting in P2.2 billion would collectively receive about 603 million new shares, or nearly 24%. Lopez Inc.’s P300 million would buy roughly 82 million more.

Those are estimates until ABS-CBN discloses the actual allocation and terms.

But they illustrate the scale of what is happening: I&C could emerge as ABS-CBN’s largest single holder of common shares, and that raises two separate questions worth keeping apart, because they have different answers.

The first is: who owns I&C? The company has identified itself as wholly Filipino-owned and has been linked in corporate records and news reports to investment bankers associated with Fortman Cline Capital Markets. Given the size of the investment, stockholders have an obvious interest in knowing the ultimate owners of a company that may soon hold close to two-fifths of ABS-CBN’s common shares.

ADVICE. The Fortman Cline Capital Markets management team (from left) Clarisse T. Tan, managing director; Daniel D. Ibasco, president; Gary P. Cheng, managing director. Courtesy of FortmanCline website

The second is a different question: whose money is actually going into that P3.5 billion. Ownership of the vehicle and the source of its capital are not the same thing. Is this I&C’s own capital, deployed for its own account? Does it include other investors, a fund, or financing arranged specifically for this transaction? Speculation has already attached itself to the timing, I&C’s emergence followed closely on Ramon Ang’s separate acquisition of Crème’s 25.68% stake in Lopez Inc., but there is, at this point, no documentary evidence connecting the two.

A third question follows from the first two, and it may matter more for ABS-CBN’s future than either: what does P3.5 billion buy I&C besides shares? A seat on the board, rights over major corporate decisions, a role in shaping strategy, protections if ABS-CBN needs to raise money again, and anti-dilution or exit rights?

And more fundamentally, what financial projections persuaded a professional turnaround investor that ABS-CBN can eventually make money again? What did I&C see in ABS-CBN’s numbers that persuaded it to put P3.5 billion into the company? And what does management believe ABS-CBN will look like when that turnaround is complete?

Wednesday’s board election will not answer any of that.

A board chosen before the rescue

The 7 people nominated for election on August 19 are Martin Lopez, Carlo Katigbak, Federico “Piki” Lopez, Rafael Lopez, Ma. Rosario “Charo” Santos-Concio, Monico Jacob, and Honorio Poblador IV.

The slate is notable partly because of who is there, and partly because of who put them there.

Martin Lopez, Katigbak, Rafael Lopez, and Piki himself are incumbents, and the company’s own filings show they were all formally nominated by Piki. There is no I&C representative on the ballot, no Gabby Lopez, no representative of Ramon Ang or of Leandro Leviste’s LL Holdings.

The chronology explains the gap. The nominations had already been submitted and processed before the August rescue transaction was announced. The board that stockholders elect Wednesday was essentially assembled for the ABS-CBN that existed before I&C agreed to put in P3.5 billion and before the Lopez branches agreed to invest directly.

In that sense, stockholders on Wednesday will be electing yesterday’s board for a company whose ownership is already beginning to change.

But the more striking gap sits inside the family itself. On May 11, 2026, Piki, represented by Gonzalo T. Ocampo, filed a complaint with the SEC, docketed as SEC Case No. AHCL-001, against ABS-CBN Corporation, The Big Dipper Digital Content & Design Inc., and three individuals: Martin Lopez, Katigbak, and Ricardo B. Tan Jr. The complaint asks the SEC to appoint an interim management committee, order an audit of ABS-CBN’s and Big Dipper’s financial reports, and investigate alleged violations of the Revised Corporation Code and the Securities Regulation Code. The respondents filed a motion to dismiss, which remains pending.

Piki is, in other words, formally accusing Martin Lopez and Katigbak of corporate wrongdoing before a regulator, while simultaneously having nominated both men for reelection to the ABS-CBN board he also sits on.

If the number of nominees does not exceed the seven seats to be filled, and it doesn’t, the shares represented at the meeting will simply be cast in favor of the nominees. There is no contest to decide.

So the more interesting governance question comes after the ASM: When does new ownership translate into new governance? If I&C eventually owns close to 38% of the common shares, does it wait until the next annual meeting for board representation? Does the board eventually expand? Does an existing director step down? Or has I&C deliberately agreed to invest without a board seat?

There is a second Lopez-family thread worth holding onto: Piki’s Croslo branch is conspicuously absent from the three branches personally committing P2.2 billion to the recapitalization. Yet Lopez Inc., where Piki remains an important shareholder and director, is itself putting P300 million into ABS-CBN. Who approved that investment? Did Piki support it, oppose it or abstain? And does he now support the larger P6-billion rescue even as his own SEC complaint against two of its architects remains pending?

Those questions may or may not be raised from the virtual floor on Wednesday. But they matter because the recapitalization does more than bring new money into ABS-CBN. It also begins to rearrange who owns it, while the question of who governs it is still, for now, being litigated by one of its own directors.

Paying for yesterday, or investing in tomorrow?

For 6 years, much of the story of ABS-CBN has been about survival: losing a franchise, shrinking operations, selling property, negotiating with banks, cutting costs, paying former employees in installments, and finding new places to distribute the content it could no longer broadcast over its own free-TV frequencies.

The P6 billion recapitalization is potentially a turning point because it could give ABS-CBN something it has repeatedly had to fight for since 2020: time.

But time bought with fresh capital eventually runs out, too. Money sent to BPI and UnionBank repairs the balance sheet, money paid to retirees settles obligations carried over from years of retrenchment, and money paid to suppliers keeps today’s operations moving, all of it arguably necessary.

But none, by itself, creates the ABS-CBN that I&C and the Lopez family are apparently betting can emerge from this rescue.

That is why the most important number to listen for at the August 19 meeting may not be the P6 billion everyone already knows. It is how much of that P6 billion will still be there after ABS-CBN pays for yesterday, and what management intends to do with what is left. – Rappler.com

Lala Rimando wrote about Philippine business, and managed newsrooms, including Newsbreak, ABS-CBN, Rappler, and Forbes, for over 25 years. She’s now based in La Union, taking care of her mom with dementia, and working on the multimedia biography of the late John Gokongwei.

Below are some of the author’s articles on the Lopez family saga:

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