Asia United Bank first half profit hits P2.9B

Asia United Bank (AUB) said profits jumped 50 percent to P2.9 billion in the first semester of the year as recovery gained ground amid the lowering of pandemic constraints.

The lender, owned by the Ng family of the Rebisco Group, said net interest earnings rose while expenses for bad debts dropped from January to June this year.

“We remain on track with our target to return to our prepandemic net income performance of P4.4 billion, especially as the economy gradually reopens,” AUB president Manuel Gomez said in a statement.

AUB ended June with a net interest income of P5.8 billion, up 8 percent from the same period last year.

It said interest earnings from loans and receivables were flat at P5 billion while income from trading surged 56 percent.

Improved asset quality

The lender said better asset quality pushed down nonperforming loans to 1.8 percent of the portfolio from 2 percent.

“This allowed the group to set aside lower provision for credit and impairment losses by 43 percent to P511 million from P897 million in the same period last year,” AUB said.

From January to June, AUB said earnings translated to a return on asset of 1.8 percent and a return on equity of 15.8 percent. This compares to 1.2 percent and 11 percent last year.

“We are pleased to note that these profitability ratios are among the highest, if not the best, in the industry, as far as published reports of other publicly listed banks go,” Gomez said.

Meanwhile, low-cost current account/savings account (Casa) deposits reached P222 billion as of June.

This led to a Casa-to-total deposits ratio of 84 percent from 71 percent in the same period in 2021.

AUB ended June with assets of P319.7 billion, placing it among the top 20 lenders in the country, the statement showed.