EastWest surpasses 2012 branch goal
Ann Rozainne R. Gregorio, Business World Online
GOTIANUN-led East West Banking Corp. (EastWest Bank) surpassed its target of opening 100 branches last year.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange yesterday, the bank said it set up 123 branches last year, raising the total number of its branches to 245 from 122 in the previous year.
Fast-growing EastWest Bank said it will continue to aggressively expand its branch network, eyeing 350 branches by 2014.
"[The branch expansion is] EastWest Bank's commitment to its shareholders to open new stores around the country at a rapid pace, which it has fervently pursued," the bank said.
EastWest Bank President Antonio C. Moncupa, Jr., in a text message, declined to say the number of branches it plans to establish this year.
Last year, the bank made its second acquisition by purchasing Pasig City-based Finman Rural Bank.
The year before, EastWest Bank swallowed Mindanao-based Green Bank, Inc., a rural bank with 46 branches nationwide.
Prior to Green Bank, EastWest Bank acquired AIG Philam Savings Bank in 2009 and Ecology Savings Bank, Inc. in 2003.
EastWest Bank launched an initial public offering in April last year and raised P5.2 billion, which was earmarked for funding its branch expansion and purchase of information technology infrastructure. It subsequently listed on the local bourse on May 7.
It booked a net income of P1.36 billion as of September, up 12% from the P1.21 billion registered in the same period the previous year.
The bank's shares closed at P29.25 apiece yesterday, 0.86% or 25 centavos higher than their P20-per-share close last Friday. --
