COL Financial first-quarter net rises by 58%

Leading online stockbroker COL Financial (COL), formerly Citiseconline, posted a 58-percent year-on-year increase in its first-quarter profit to P130 million on the back of a robust domestic stock market and growth in customer base.

Consolidated revenue rose by 35 percent to P204 million year on year, driven by local operations, which jumped by 45 percent to P179 million. Commissions, which accounted for 73 percent of Philippine revenue, surged by 86 percent to P131 million. The Philippines accounted for 88 percent of total revenue in the first quarter, from the 82-percent share for the whole of 2011.

COL operates a stock brokerage in Hong Kong.

The significant increase in COL’s revenue was attributed to the strong performance of the Philippine market, whose main index rallied by 17 percent in the first quarter while average turnover picked up by 54 percent to P8 billion.

COL said it also benefited from the strong growth of its client base. It added 4,300 new customers in the first three months, bringing its total client base to more than 32,000 as of the end of March. This brought up the value of client equity to P22 billion from P17 billion as of end-2011.

The strong growth in COL’s client base led to an improvement in market share, which jumped to 23 percent in terms of volume of transactions in the first quarter from 21 percent in 2011, cementing its position as the top stock broker in the PSE in terms of volume.

In value terms, COL’s rank also improved to 7th from 8th after handling P49 billion worth of transactions.—Doris C. Dumlao