BDO expects 19% rise in net profit this year

THE COUNTRY’S largest lender Banco de Oro Unibank expects net profit this year to hit a record P10.5 billion, about 19 percent higher than that of the previous year, on the back of higher interest and fee-based earnings.

BDO also hopes to launch in a few weeks its offering of subordinated notes valued at around P5 billion, BDO president Nestor Tan yesterday said. This is part of the bank’s P15-billion tier 2 fund-raising scheme for the next 12 months.

Foreign banks Deutsche Bank and HSBC were mandated to arrange the first tranche of the tier 2 offering, Tan said.

In a briefing ahead of the bank’s annual stockholders meeting, Tan said a diversified and sustainable income stream should fuel the bank’s growth this year. The sustained growth in net interest and fee-based income is seen to compensate for the expected decline in trading gains.

BDO’s lending portfolio this year may expand at a moderate pace. In 2010, gross customer loans expanded by 15 percent to P541.5 billion.

The bank’s consolidated resources hit the P1-trillion mark at end-2010, the first Philippine bank to reach this milestone.