BDO end-Sept profit up

The SM Group’s BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) said earnings rose in the first nine months of the year, placing it on track to hit its full-year profit target of P31 billion, a gain of around 10 percent.

BDO said net income from January to September this year hit P21.5 billion, up 6 percent compared to the same period in 2017, a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange showed on Monday.

Excluding the results of BDO Life, which was affected by certain accounting changes, and One Network Bank with its ongoing investment in the micro-SME lending business, net income would have increased 13 percent, the lender said.

“With the positive performance in the first nine months this year, the bank believes that the 2018 full-year earnings guidance of P31 billion remains within reach, given the seasonally stronger fourth quarter, combined with encouraging results from the bank’s strategic initiatives expanding across underserved segments and growth areas,” BDO said.

For the third quarter of 2018 alone, BDO said profit rose 18 percent to P8.4 billion.

It attributed the gain to the expansion of its core lending and deposit-taking, life insurance and fee-based businesses.

BDO noted that lending operations posted a 17-percent gain in gross customer loans to almost P2 trillion, led by the middle-market and consumer segments.

Asset growth was funded by the 12-percent increase in total deposits to P2.3 trillion. Its interest income expanded by 20 percent to P71.5 billion, with net interest margin increasing for the year and the quarter due to upward loan repricing and managed funding costs given a large low-cost current account saving account base.

BDO is the country’s largest bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits and trust funds under management.