COL Financial posted 32.7% profit growth in 9 months

The country’s leading online stock brokerage COL Financial grew its net profit in the first nine months by 32.7 percent year-on-year to P450.8 million as it expanded its market share despite the tumultuous stock market this year.

Consolidated revenue for the first nine months rose by 22.5 percent year-on-year to P870.7 million, powered by a 9-percent growth in commission revenue to P551.6 million. Interest income also gained by 65 percent to P239.6 million, benefiting from cash management and favorable interest rates.

Meanwhile, trailer fees from COL’s fund distribution business, COL Fund Source, surged by 46.6 percent year-on-year to P10.8 million.

“The investments we’ve made in our clients throughout the years have helped drive the growth that we’re seeing in key areas of our business,” COL president Conrado Bate said in a statement. “We have been expanding our products and services and increasing our engagements with our clients so we can provide better support in helping them build wealth.”

Profit growth was also driven by the significant improvement in operating profit margin, as the contribution of self-directed clients to total commission revenues increased to 81.9 percent during the first nine months from 70.4 percent in the same period last year.

COL’s operating profit rose by 33.1 percent to P585.5 million as revenue grew faster than its costs, reflecting the high operating leverage of the company’s business.

Despite the difficult market conditions, COL’s client base expanded to over 283,000 accounts as of end-September, up 19.8 percent year-on-year. Total client equity remained steady at P71.3 billion, with total net new flows reaching P6.3 billion as COL’s clients continued to add to their portfolios as stock prices reached bargain levels.

COL’s average daily value turnover in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) also rose to 9.9 percent, in contrast to the 14.6-percent drop in the PSE’s average daily value turnover. As a result, its market share in terms of value turnover jumped to 7.9 percent for the first nine months, boosting the company’s PSE ranking to No. 2 from No. 5 as of end-September 2017.

As COL continued to promote mutual fund investing as a simpler way of investing in stocks, it also increased the proportion of clients with mutual funds to 12.3 percent from only 10.4 percent during the same period in 2017.  By using the same platform to cross sell mutual funds, COL has increased the volume of this new business.

Assets under administration for COL Fund Source grew to P2.7 billion as of end-September, up by 36.5 percent year-on-year.

“We’ve increased our efforts to engage our customers in this time of market uncertainty by giving them more guidance through different platforms and channels,” Bate said. “We also remain strongly committed to reaching out to even more Filipinos, so we can support and empower them in taking control of their future.”—DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA