COL founder and chair Edward Lee (center) with COL vice chair Alexander Yu (left) and president Conrado Bate (right).
The country’s leading online stock brokerage COL Financial Group grew its net profit in the first quarter by 41.9 percent year-on-year to P100.2 million on robust growth across all businesses segments.
First quarter revenues expanded by 24.7 percent year-on-year to P213.6 million, largely driven by the strong growth of commissions, which expanded by 17.7 percent to P139.2 million during the period, the brokerage house said in a regulatory filing.
“Our company’s outstanding performance this quarter is largely attributable to our strategy of focusing on the retail investor base, a segment that is rapidly growing and which continues to regularly invest,” COL president Conrado Bate said.
The company’s return on average equity improved to 30.1 percent in the first quarter compared to 23 percent in the same period last year.
While COL boosted its revenues, total expenses increased at a slower pace of 6.2 percent year-on-year to P82.6 million as the company remained focused on managing its costs. As a result, COL’s operating profits jumped by 40 percent year-on-year to P130.9 million.
COL’s value turnover also increased by 19.4 percent from a year ago, outpacing the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) which grew by 7.1 percent.
Consequently, COL’s market share in terms of value turnover increased to 5.8 percent in the first quarter compared to 5.2 percent in the same period last year.
COL’s ranking in the PSE in terms of value traded jumped four levels higher to fourth place for the first time at the end of the first quarter. It also maintained its number one position in terms of transaction volume, gobbling up 20.3 percent of total transactions in the period.
The brokerage house also steadily attract new clients, reaching over 216,000 clients as of end-March, adding 44,000 new clients year-on-year. Client equity also rose to record levels of P65.1 billion by the end of March, marking a 23-percent increase from the year before, primarily driven by net new asset flows of over P10 billion.
COL’s fund distribution business, COL Fund Source, also continued to gain traction in the first quarter, ending the period with more than 20,000 clients and total value of assets under administration of P1.5 billion. Furthermore, COL’s equity mutual fund net sales for the first quarter reached P103.4 million, accounting for 82.8 percent of the industry’s net sales during the period.
“The company’s strong showing highlights our ability to serve a broad range of investors, and indicates our customers’ continued trust in us and our ability to serve their different investment needs,” Bate added.
COL Fund Source carries preselected peso-denominated funds of the six asset management companies that altogether account for around 98 percent of the mutual fund industry’s assets under management.