By Eileen A. Mencias

Citi Property Investors, a part of Citigroup, is investing $200 million in Philippine real estate.

Citibank Philippines country manager Sanjiv Vohra said in a briefing that Citi Property Investors had been investing in phases in the Philippines since last year. Vohra said the company expected to complete the $200-million investment next month.

He said Citi Property Investors was buying its fifth building in the Philippines but declined to identify the properties acquired by the company.

Citi Property Investors, part of the alternative investments strategy of Citi, has $14.3 billion in assets and presence in Europe, North America and Asia.

Vohra said the performance of Citi?s Philippine operations had been ?pretty good,? with business growing last year, although at a slower pace.

?We started 2009 well in the Philippines and globally. We remain optimistic for the rest of the year and the first two months has been encouraging for us,? Vohra said.

Citibank, meanwhile, has recently received accreditation from Philhealth to collect premium payments, the first foreign bank tapped by the local company. Citibank has already been collecting payments for the Social Security System, the state-run pension fund for private sector workers.