name which in effect made BPI the largest Philippine Bank and in the top 10 largest South East Asian Bank which led EPCI down to the third spot and months later Metrobank acquired Philbanking, Asianbank and Solidbank which resulted it regaining the top spot and BPI demoted to number two and the deal was closed at 2000 and sparked the first wave of mergers and acquisitions. Merger history First attempts Banco de Oro first attempted to acquire Equitable PCI began sometime in 2003, when Banco de Oro agreed to purchase the shareholdings of the Social Security System in Equitable PCI for roughly eight billion pesos through a zero coupon amortizing note. However, a group of concerned citizens, including several politicians and pension holders managed to get the Supreme Court to issue an injunction on the sale following questions raised over the sale price and the manner by which the Social Security Commission "authorized" the sale. The case, titled Osmeña v. Social Security Commission, was rendered moot by the subsequent purchase by Banco de Oro of other Equitable PCI shares. (Osmeña v. Social Security Commission, G.R. No. 165272, September 13, 2007) Second time's a charm On August 5, 2005, Banco de Oro and SM Investments Corporation, another member of the SM Group, acquired 24.76% of Equitable PCI shares from the Go family, the family that founded Equitable PCI. The acquisition finally settled a dispute between the Gos and a bigger bloc representing the SSS, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the family of Equitable PCI chairman Ferdinand Romualdez, a relative of Imelda Marcos. The SM group's acquisition of the Go shares increased its stake to 27.26%. It had a 2.5% stake before the acquisition. The deal was closed on August 11 of that year. During that time, the SM group hoped that the Supreme Court would have settled with finality the issue over the acquisition of the 29% stake of the SSS. At the time, the SSS was still studying the deal, unlike the GSIS and chairman Romualdez, both of whom were staunchly opposed to the deal. The GSIS would only agree to the acquisition of its shares if its shares were to be bought at 92 pesos per share, the price at which the GSIS originally bought it for, or higher. The SSS deal called for acquisition of its shares for P43.50 per share. However, the SM group said