P2B capital infusion for China Bank Savings ok’d

SY family-led China Banking Corp. has mapped out a fresh P2-billion recapitalization program for thrift bank arm China Bank Savings Inc. (CBSI), in support of the latter’s business expansion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, China Bank announced that P1 billion in fresh capital would be infused into CBSI this September while the remaining P1 billion would be put in by December this year.

The additional equity brings to P6.01 billion the total capital infusion into the thrift bank since 2014, the year that the thrift bank obtained approval from shareholders to hike its authorized capital by P5 billion and to merge with Planters Development Bank.

China Bank now owns 97.24 percent of the total outstanding capital stock of CBSI. Some of the directors and officers of China Bank sit as concurrent directors and/or officers of CBSI.

Beefing up its savings bank unit is part of China Bank’s core strategies this 2016 – acquire customers, deepen relationships and to become the “best bank” for its customers.

The group strives to remain a major player with a sizeable presence in the small and medium enterprise (SME) and middle markets, while maintaining its niche in the Chinese business community.

The bank also expects to take advantage of bigger business opportunities following the integration of PlantersBank into CBSI.

The thrift bank arm is targeted to generate better returns by leveraging on its presence in the commercial, middle and SME space through the setup of business centers and provincial sales offices. It seeks to tap business prospects from the SM group‘s supply chain and convert contract-to-sell financing to end-user home financing facilities and publicly launch teachers‘ loans.

As of end-2015, CBSI had 165 branches, 78 branches of which came from its merger with PlantersBank.