China Bank boosts cash dividends by 28% to P5.1B

MANILA  -China Banking Corp., the country’s fourth-largest private lender, boosted cash dividends by 28 percent after reporting strong earning growth in 2022.

The lender’s board of directors approved the declaration of P5.1 billion in cash dividends, payable on May 18 this year to stockholders on record as of May 5. The dividend was comprised of a P1 regular cash dividend and P0.90 in special dividend.

“We are committed to distribute a fair share of the bank’s profits to our shareholders resulting in an attractive yield to their equity” ChinaBank president and CEO Romeo D. Uyan Jr. said in the filing.

The dividend represent 27 percent of China Bank’s full year 2022 net income of P19.1 billion, the filing showed.

The lender, part of the Sy family conglomerate SM Investments Corp., recorded a 14-percent increase in revenues last year to P55.7 billion.

This was mainly driven by net interest income of P45.6 billion, up 17 percent from 2021.

Fee-based income grew by 5 percent to P10.1 billion due to higher “core fee income, including deposit-related transaction fees, trust revenues, bancassurance commissions, and fees from our investment banking, stock brokerage, and insurance brokerage businesses.”

The bank’s net loans last year expanded by 15 percent to P700 billion while total deposits reached P1.1 trillion, which was higher by 24 percent.

Total assets in 2022 rose 20 percent to P1.3 trillion while total equity stood at P135 billion, up 13 percent, with a common tier 1 equity ratio of 15.1 percent and total capital adequacy ratio of 15.9 percent.