BEIJING: China Banking Corp (Chinabank) is set to raise gross proceeds of over $300 million (P15 billion) through a stock rights offering (SRO) on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) slated on April 24 to May 5, 2017.
Chinabank intends to use the proceeds to fund the bank’s credit growth in the SME and consumer segments, back up branch network expansion, and for general corporate purposes. The universal bank disclosed over the weekend that the offer price per rights share was determined at P31 each, based on the 15-day volume-weighted average of the bank’s common shares on the PSE, subject to a discount of 24.1 per cent. All rights shares are expected to be listed on the PSE on May 10, 2017. PSE approved Chinabank’s application for the listing of the rights shares last March 22
Chinabank is offering up to 483,870,967 common shares of the bank with a par value of P10 per share. “The exchange’s approval of the Stock Rights Offering (SRO) is subject to the bank’s compliance with all applicable post-approval requirements of the exchange. The exchange will accordingly announce any developments on the Bank’s SRO,” Chinabank said in its statement. Founded in 1920, Chinabank is the first privately owned local commercial bank in the Philippines and is now the sixth largest private universal bank in terms of assets. It entered 2017 with a network of 391 branches, and a combined total of 541 with thrift arm China Bank Savings (CBS). CBS ended 2016 being the fourth largest thrift bank with P83 billion in assets and P58 billion in loans. Chinabank posted a 15 per cent growth in net income to P6.45 billion in 2016, reflecting sustained growth in core businesses across all market segments. This translates to a return on equity of 10.4 per and return on assets of 1.16 per cent. Chinabank’s last trading price increased 0.24 per cent or P0.100 to close at P41.55 per share.
