MANILA, Philippines  - The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the country's largest lender by market value, said on Thursday it had set a price of P32.50 pesos ($0.71) per share for its rights issue to raise up to P10 billion.

The offer price is a discount of 30.5% to BPI's close of P46.75 on Wednesday.

Shortly before Thursday's close, BPI shares were up 1.1 percent at P47.25, outperforming the financial sector index which slipped 0.3 percent.

Shareholders of the bank, owned by the country's oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp. , would be entitled to subscribe to one new common share for every 10.555 common shares held as of Aug. 5, the company said in a stock exchange disclosure. 

The bank had earlier given a ratio of 1 new share for 9.9691 common shares held.

The bank, also the third largest lender in the country by assets, will sell up to 325.7 million common shares from Aug. 9 to 13 to raise funds to strengthen its capital base.

J.P. Morgan is the sole international lead manager and international lead underwriter for the stock rights offer and BPI Capital Corp will be domestic issue manager and domestic lead underwriter.