Ayala earnings up 5% to P34B

INQUIRER FILES

Record earnings in the banking business lifted the nine-month net profit of Ayala Corp., the country’s oldest conglomerate, by 5 percent to P34 billion.

Excluding one-time gains, the Zobel family-led firm’s core earnings climbed by 19 percent to P36.7 billion, Ayala said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.

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Revenues were up by 9 percent to P268.45 billion.

“Ayala’s growth is being sustained by the strong performance of our core businesses,” Ayala president and CEO Cezar Consing said in a statement.

Bank of the Philippine Islands, the third-largest private bank in the country, did the heavy lifting for Ayala as its net income surged by 24 percent to a record P48 billion.

Net interest income likewise jumped by 22 percent to P93.9 billion as total loans expanded.

Telco giant Globe Telecom Inc. and renewable energy firm ACEN Corp. both registered double-digit growth in core net income in the January to September period.