Asia United Bank H1 profit up 42%

MANILA  -The Ng family’s Asia United Bank is betting on improving business confidence to sustain earnings after profits surged 42 percent to P4.1 billion during the first six months of 2023.

“While we see continuous improvement in consumer and business confidence, we remain on the lookout for potential headwinds as monetary policy remains hawkish,” AUB president Manuel A. Gomez said in a statement on Thursday.

“However, we see plenty of opportunities in greater collaboration within and outside the organization, particularly in digital transformation, and this gives us confidence in sustaining our gains,” he added.

AUB said earnings during the period improved its return on equity to 20.3 percent and return on assets to 2.6 percent.

Total loans expanded by 9 percent to P190.5 billion, mainly from the corporate and consumer segments. AUB closed the six-month period with a net interest income of P7.4 billion, up 28 percent. Non-interest earnings surged 41 percent to P1.5 billion.

“Strong contributions to the increases in service charges, fees and commissions, securities trading gains and foreign exchange gains came from AUB’s operating activities such as remittance, credit cards, trust, AUB PayMate, and trading businesses,” the lender said.

Meanwhile, the bank’s non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stood at 0.85 percent, below the industry average.

Loan loss expenses surged 86 percent to P952 million as its NPL coverage grew to 114.8 percent from 79.8 percent.

AUB’s total assets during the first semester ended at P327.7 billion while total equity was at P43.8 billion. The bank had an indicative common equity tier 1 ratio of 15.42 percent and a capital adequacy ratio of 16 percent, both above regulatory requirements.