China Bank net up 30% in Jan-June

Sy family-led China Banking Corp. posted a 30-percent growth in first semester net profit to P3.27 billion as higher treasury gains complemented strong growth in core and fee-based businesses.

This translated to a return on equity (ROE) of 10.74 percent and a return on assets (ROA) of 1.22 percent, China Bank disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange Thursday.

“We are encouraged by the strong positive results in the first semester despite the challenging market conditions,” China Bank president and CEO Ricardo Chua said.

Net revenue before operating expenses grew by 15 percent to P10.85 billion, with net interest revenue up by 7 percent to P7.95 billion. The bank expanded its loan book by 12 percent year-on-year to P324.03 billion from year-ago level.

Non-interest revenue rose by 42 percent to P2.9 billion, supported by higher trading gains which reached P993.52 million during the semester from P345.91 million last year. There was also a 16-percent increase in service charges, fees and commissions.

Total operating expenses rose by 11 percent to P6.66 billion as the bank continued its network expansion and embarked on new product initiatives.

Total assets increased by 16 percent year-on-year to P555.55 billion, driven by loans and deposit growth. The 12-percent loan growth was underpinned by a 24-percent surge in consumer loans.

On the funding side, total deposits grew by 16 percent year-on-year to P462.62 billion, with low-cost deposits rising by 18 percent to P239.04 billion. Of total deposits, 51.67 percent consisted of low-cost deposits (current account and savings account) compared to 50.66 percent last year.  For every peso of deposits, the bank was able to lend out P0.72.

China Bank’s total capital funds rose by 6.23 percent to P62.47 billion. Core or tier 1 capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and total CAR ended the semester at 12.28 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.