Benpres Holdings Corporation

June 9, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 1354-99 June 9, 1999 SUBJECT : Benpres Holdings Corporation In reply to the Exchange's inquiry on the news article published in the June 8, 1999 issue of Today captioned "Proceeds of PCIBank sale to cut Benpres' debt by P6 billion", Benpres Holdings Corporation ("BPC"), in a letter to the Exchange, clarified that: ". . . Benpres received approximately P14 billion from the sale of its PCIBank stake to the Equitable Banking Group, the Social Security System (SSS), and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Part of the proceeds of this transaction will be used to pare down debt by approximately P4.6 billion consisting of the following loan obligations which were secured by a pledge on the shares of PCIBank. a) US$60,000, 000 obligation to Morgan Guarantee Trust: In 1997, Benpres requested the carve out of 20,000,000 common shares in PCIBank out of the negative pledge provisions of its Long Term Commercial Papers. These shares were pledged to secure a US$60 Million financing transaction entered into by Benpres with Morgan Guarantee Trust which allowed Benpres to monetize the value of its shares in PCIBank b) P2.314 billion loan obligation assumed by Benpres in connection with its purchase of additional PCIBank shares last December 1998. The pledge on the 18,634,443 common shares in PCIBank were assumed by Benpres when Benpres assumed the loan obligations of seller of these shares to creditor banks. The remainder of the proceeds will be used by Benpres for future investments in its core businesses . . ." Furthermore, BPC furnished the Exchange a copy of the Minutes of the Annual Stockholders' Meeting held last June 7, 1999. In the said meeting, the following were elected members of the Board of Directors of BPC: Mr. Eugenio Lopez, Jr. Mr. Oscar M. Lopez Mrs. Presentacion L. Psinakis Mr. Manuel M. Lopez Mr. Eugenio Lopez III Mr. Felipe B. Alfonso Mr. Washington Z. SyCip SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. was retained as external auditor of BPC. For your information. (SGD.) JOSE LUIS U. YULO, JR. President and CEO