Citystate Savings to beef up capital to P1 billion

MANILA, Philippines - Citystate Savings Bank is planning to increase its paid-up capital to P1 billion from the current level of about P700 million to support its expansion program next year.

In a telephone interview with The STAR, Citystate founder and chairman Antonio Cabangon Chua said they are now preparing for the planned capital raising scheme and would be ready to proceed by early next year.

Chua also expressed optimism that the bank would post an income in the first nine months of the year.

He also clarified that they did not incur losses in the first six months.

“This was just a result of higher provisions for losses. We won’t be allowed to open new branches if we have losses,” the bank chairman said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) gave its go signal for  Citystate to put up new branches in Batangas, Pangasinan, Laguna, and Palawan.

Chua said they are starting the construction of a branch in Puerto Prinsesa.

“We have bought a building in front of Puerto Prinsesa capitol. This is a strategic location to put up a bank branch,” he said.

Publicly-listed Citystate was a partnership between the group of Chua and a Singaporean investment holding company.

It was granted the thrift bank license by the Monetary Board of the BSP in 1997.

Citystate, which went public in January 2002, started its banking operations a day after the Monetary Board approved its thrift bank license on August 1997.