EastWest sets P30-B bond program

MANILA  -EastWest Banking Corp. is preparing for major expansion moves as it approved a P30-billion bond program to be issued over the next five years.

EastWest, part of the family Gotianun family conglomerate Filinvest Development Corp., will issue notes to aggressively grow assets, which include its booming consumer loans business.

The lender also plans to refinance maturing loans apart from other funding purposes, a stock exchange filing on Friday showed.

The bank did not provide other details of the planned bond sale, which comes amid a period of elevated interest rates.

Bank president Jackie S. Fernandez earlier said the lender was planning to optimize its balance sheet “to unlock more value”.

EastWest more than doubled profits during the first six months of 2023 to P3.3 billion.

Its consumer lending portfolio, which gained 27 percent over the past year, accounted for 77 percent of total loans.

This helped push up net interest income during the period to P13 billion, 18 percent higher than year-ago level. Loans and receivables jumped 22 percent to nearly P274 billion amid the growth of higher-yielding consumer debts.

EastWest ended the first half with total assets of P434 billion, up 4.6 percent.

Meanwhile, total deposits were flat at about P335 billion. Current account and savings account deposits, used by the bank for higher-yielding financing and investments, were up 6.9 percent to P272.4 billion, bringing the CASA ratio to 80 percent.

Its capital ratios were above regulatory requirements, at 14 percent and 13.2 percent in terms of capital adequacy ratio and common equity tier 1 ratio.