MANILA, Philippines - The Aboitiz Group is spending P1.36 billion to beef its stake in Cebu-based City Savings Bank (CSB) to 100%.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, holding firm Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) said its board of directors, in a meeting Thursday, approved a plan to increase the company's stake in CSB to up to 60% from the current 34%.

Pilmico Foods Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of AEV, will acquire the remaining 40% of CSB.

The planned acquisitions are still subject to regulatory approval.

As a thrift bank, CSB is primarily engaged in offering loans to school teachers under the Department of Education's Automatic Payroll Deduction System.

Teachers have been the main market of CSB since the bank began operations more than 4 decades ago. The bank's other products include salary loans to government and private sector employees, home mortgage and home improvement loans, as well as small business loans.

CSB currently has over 300 employees serving over 90,000 borrowers and more than 53,000 depositors. It has 12 full branches and 11 extension offices in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

The bank has total capital funds of about P700 million and total resources of over P6 billion.