MANILA, PHILIPPINES – EastWest Banking Corporation (EW) listed more than 371 million shares from its recently concluded stock rights issuance at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and raised P8 billion from the offering.
“I am glad that EastWest has chosen to tap the equities market to raise additional capital especially as this fund raising exercise will further boost the bank’s capital adequacy ratio and support its growth strategy moving forward,” said PSE Chairman Jose T. Pardo in his welcome remarks during the listing ceremony.
EastWest CFO Rene de Borja Jr said the bank’s major expansion phase has been completed and has also established its branch store footprint and IT infrastructure to better service existing and new customers.
The Gotianun family-led bank announced its net proceeds from the SRO will initially be invested in short-term investments allowed under BSP regulations but will eventually be reinvested in loans.
HSBC is the sole international lead manager for the undertaking and Unicapital is the sole domestic lead manager and underwriter.
EastWest said net proceeds from the stock rights offer will initially be invested in short-term investments allowed under BSP regulations but will eventually be reinvested in loans.
Stockholders of EastWest approved the increase in its authorized capital stock to P40 billion from P20 billion in its annual stockholders meeting held earlier this month.
The increase in the additional capital stock will give the bank more flexibility should an investment opportunity present itself and should it need additional capital to support its expected organic growth. – BusinessNewsAsia.com