The Rebisco group’s banking arm, Asia United Bank (AUB), grew its net profit in the first nine months by 4.1 percent year-on-year to P2.28 billion as higher interest earnings offset the slowdown in trading gains.
For the third quarter alone, net profit eased by 16.9 percent year-on-year to P710.7 million due to slower treasury gains alongside higher interest and operating expenses.
The nine-month performance translated to a return on assets of 1.4 percent and return on equity of 11.2 percent versus year-ago ratios of 1.6 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively.
AUB’s profitability was attributed to the 25.8-percent growth in loans and receivables to P146.1 billion, in turn driven by commercial loans and other loan segments such as auto, housing and salary loans, which all posted double-digit growths.
Higher loans boosted the group’s total assets by 18.3 percent year-on-year to P230.3 billion.
“We remain confident that AUB will show accelerated growth as we cater to the needs of corporations and small and medium enterprises,” AUB president Manuel Gomez said in a statement.
AUB’s net interest income rose by 15.6 percent year-on-year to P5.6 billion. Despite this, net interest margin was down to 4.2 percent from 4.4 percent a year-ago due to increasing interest expense.
Other operating income rose by 3.4 percent, weighed down by the 66.4-percent drop in trading and securities gain. This was due to minimal trading opportunities. Foreign exchange gain, however, increased by 347.7 percent to P146.1 million with the volatile movement of local currency. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA