PBB nets P472M

THE ZEST-O group’s thrift bank arm Philippine Business Bank posted a net profit of P471.8 million in the first nine months, about 2 percent lower year-on-year due to large one-time gains booked in the previous year.

Excluding extraordinary items, however, PBB reported a year-on-year increase of 14.1 percent in its “pro-forma” recurring net income to P513.4 million for the nine-month period, based on a regulatory filing.

The bank’s recurring net profit includes the earnings of Insular Savers Bank (ISB), a rural bank acquired earlier this year while the comparative level excluded a one-time gain of P72.5 million that was recognized in the third quarter of 2014.

This pro-forma report was presented in a way that assumed that Insular Savers had been consolidated into its books during the comparative period in 2014, to allow a more accurate comparison.

“The bank’s performance in light of the stiff competition in the industry is indicative of PBB’s maturation as a financial institution. Maintaining our recurring core income and increasing our PTPP (pre-tax and pre-provisioning profit) and net income against the backdrop of sustained low financing costs is a testament to PBB’s resiliency and discipline, especially as we kept our NPLs (non-performing loans) within reasonable bounds and still deliver an attractive NIM (net interest margin) at 4.15 percent,” said Roland Avante, president and chief executive officer of Philippine Business Bank.

The bank expanded its loan book by 12.1 percent year-on-year to P39.9 billion in the first nine months.

For the nine-month period, PBB grew its net interest income by 8.7 percent year-on-year to P1.79 billion while fee-based earnings also went up by 14.5 percent year-on-year to P65 million. Miscellaneous income, however, declined by 54.5 percent due to a one-time gain in 2014.

The bank’s pro-forma recurring income reached P691.5 million this year, essentially flat against last year’s P690.1 million.

On the other hand, the bank’s trading activities contributed P74.3 million, a strong turnaround from the net loss of P30.7 million during the same period last year.

Following its acquisition of ISB, the bank has appointed Rodel Geneblazo, a seasoned banker with over 20 years’ experience in banking and finance, as president of ISB.

Geneblazo said: “PBB’s strong balance sheet enables ISB to harness synergistic opportunities, and this has helped ISB to immediately contribute to the overall profitability of PBB. We expect ISB to perform even better in 2016 as we are using 2015 to lay the groundwork that will allow us to capitalize on the strong Philippine consumer confidence and the country’s robust secular expansion.”

ISB has eight branches and has a portfolio of consumer loans and bus and auto financing.

“The acquisition of Insular Savers Bank comes at an auspicious time for PBB. The bank supports the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s mandate to fast-track the consolidation in the industry, and the acquisition of ISB and Bataan Savers during the first nine months of 2015 establishes the foundation towards more opportunistic M&A (merger and acquisition) activities for PBB,” added Avante.

Since he joined PBB late in 2011, Avante said his “to-do” list included listing the bank on the local stock exchange expanding nationwide presence. “The next step will be to upgrade our capabilities to a unibanking license,” added Avante.

PBB has a total of 127 branches as of today. Including its acquisitions, PBB has a total of 140 branches, of which eight are from Insular Savers Bank, three from Bataan Savers Bank and two from Rural Bank of Kawit.

PBB ended the quarter with P62.6 billion in total resources. Total capital grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year to P8.4 billion in the nine-month period.