BDO nets P10.5B for first nine months this year

MANILA, Philippines–Banco de Oro Unibank chalked up P10.5 billion in net profit in the first nine months of the years as robust treasury gains and fee-based earnings complemented its lending business, allowing the country’s largest bank to attain 84 percent of its full-year income target.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, the banking arm of tycoon Henry Sy reported that its January to September net profit surged by 38 percent compared to the P7.6-billion bottomline in the same period last year.

“Given this performance, the bank is very optimistic on achieving its year-end targets,” BDO said.

BDO is aiming for a 19 percent growth in 2012 net profit to P12.5 billion, a new all-time high income level for the bank.

“The bank sustained the growth in its core lending and deposit-taking businesses and recurring fee-based service income,” BDO said. “The bank also capitalized on the favorable conditions in the bond markets to realize robust trading gains from its treasury activities.”

The bank expanded its gross loan book by 17 percent to P724 billion while deposits grew by 4.8 percent to P860 billion year-on-year.

Nine-month net interest income amounted to P26.8 billion, up by 4.45 percent compared to P25.66 billion reported in the same period last year.

Total non-interest income also went up by 23 percent year-on-year to P18.9 billion. This was driven by a 32.6 percent gain in fee-based income to P10 billion and a 50-percent surge in trading and foreign exchange gains to P7 billion.

On the expenditure side, operating expenses inched up to P29.7 billion from P26.96 billion in the same period last year.  The bank set aside P4.2 billion as loan-loss buffer for the period compared to the P5-billion provision in the same period last year.

On asset quality, BDO’s gross non-performing loan was at 3.1 percent, while gross NPL coverage was at 124 percent.

The bank successfully concluded last July a landmark $1 billion stock rights offer, boosting its capital base to P152 billion.  This made BDO not only the largest bank in the Philippines in terms of resources (the first to breach the P1-trillion mark) but also turned it into the largest-capitalized bank.

BDO’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and Tier 1 capital ratio stood at 20.3 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively, as of end-September, much higher than the minimum levels required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

BDO has one of the largest distribution networks among its peers, with more than 750 operating branches and over 1,800 automated teller machines, nationwide.