BSP okays CityState share sale
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved a Hong Kong-listed firm’s P735.9-million acquisition of a minority shareholding in CityState Savings Bank Inc. as the latter seeks to expand market reach and speed up digitalization efforts.
In a stock exchange filing on Monday, the Cabangon-led CityState said the BSP had given its go signal for the transfer of 43.36 million shares to CS Capital Investment Pte. Ltd., representing a 26.3-percent stake.
CS Capital, which was incorporated in Singapore, bought the shares for P16.97 each, or a 28.76-percent premium over CityState’s share price of P13.18 on Monday morning.
CityState first announced the acquisition in September 2024, saying it would benefit from CS Capital’s “global experience, market reach and technological resources” in line with its digitalization goal.
The bank currently has 34 branches and 40 automated teller machines across the country.
It began developing its digital banking application in 2024 “to keep up with its customers’ demands and is awaiting approval from BSP.”
For its part, CS Capital said the acquisition was a “strategic investment of the company and represents the company’s first step to implement [its] financial business investment strategy.”
“It also represents the effort of the group to enter into the mainstream financial business world and lays out the business map for the group in Southeast Asia, which has a great development potential,” CS Capital noted in its filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
CityState’s first-quarter earnings ballooned by more than 1,700 percent to P124.43 million due to a surge in service charges and fees.
CityState said interest income had likewise climbed by 13.63 percent to P95.37 million.
Other income, which includes service charges and fees and miscellaneous earnings, swelled by 231 percent to P175 million.
