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MANILA, Philippines—The country’s largest lender, Banco de Oro Unibank, sees net profit this year reaching a record level of P22.8 billion, about 24 percent of which was already achieved in the first quarter.
BDO’s net profit in the first three months of the year amounted to P5.5 billion, down by 45 percent year-on-year in the absence of hefty trading gains that bloated the comparative level of P10 billion in the same period last year.
“Trading gains last year are one-off items. These are now things that you don’t expect to recur,” BDO president Nestor Tan said at a press briefing ahead of the bank’s annual stockholders meeting on Friday.
For the first quarter, net interest income grew by 27 percent to P12.2 billion from the previous year’s level. However, non-interest income declined by 47 percent to P7 billion as trading gains were much lower compared to last year due to easier monetary policy then.
“We’ll be very happy if this continues,” Tan said, commenting on the first quarter results.
For the rest of the year, BDO sees net profit rising by a modest 1 percent over the 2013 level of P22.6 billion. While the bank expects to sustain loan growth and see stable margins as well as steady increase in fee-based income, these will be offset by “normalized” trading and foreign exchange gains.
The assumptions behind BDO’s P22.8 billion net profit guidance for 2014 are as follows:
• Net interest income will rise by 15 percent to P49.6 billion; and
• Non-interest income will decline by 11 percent to P28.4 billion.
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