PVB eyes P500M in profit

Philippine Veterans, a private commercial bank owned by Filipino war veterans and their heirs, expects to post a net profit of P500 million this year, which will nearly match year-ago level.

Last year was a banner year for PVB. It grew its net profit by 20 percent to P509 million.

“But 2011 will be challenging given stiff competition in the industry and prevailing low-interest regime,” PVB president Ricardo Balbido Jr. said in a statement.

For 2010, the main drivers of PVB’s extraordinary net profit included higher interest income, sizable gains from the trading of securities and foreign exchange and strategic management of the bank’s investment portfolio. This allowed PVB to declare cash dividends of 8 percent for preferred and 2 percent for common shareholders as announced during the bank’s recent annual stockholders’ meeting held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

During the meeting, Balbido noted that PVB’s assets had also grown by 13 percent totaling P58 billion from a year before, funded by about P45.36 billion in deposits.

The bank president also reported the growth of the bank’s capital base by 9 percent to P5.4 billion.