MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has allowed the voluntary suspension of the trading of the shares of Chinatrust (Phils) Commercial Bank Corp. ahead of a planned delisting.

In a circular on Tuesday, the PSE said trading in Chinatrust would be suspended from Feb. 21 to 23.

On Feb. 24, the bank's shares "will no longer be tradable."

Chinatrust has sought its delisting from the exchange to go back to being privately owned due to the PSE's minimum public float requirement of at least 10%.

Chinatrust said it allocated P50 million out of its unrestricted retained earnings to buy back shares held by minority investors.

As of Nov. 30, 2011, only 1.47 million shares, representing 0.59% of the bank's outstanding stock, were held by the public.