BDO posts 7% hike in net income in ‘17

Sy-led BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) on Monday reported a seven percent jump in net income in 2017 to PHP28.1 billion, boosted by growth across all business segments. (Photo: BDO Unibank/Facebook)

MANILA – Sy-led BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) on Monday reported a seven percent jump in net income in 2017 to PHP28.1 billion, boosted by growth across all business segments.

In a disclosure with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the bank said improvements in all its businesses matched the financial institution’s earnings guidance for last year.

“Excluding consolidation effects of the life insurance business, however, this represented a strong 15 percent jump in core earnings on the back of solid growth in loans, low-cost deposits and fee-income,” it said.

Core businesses lending and deposit-taking as well as well as fee-based income drove the bank’s earnings last year.

BDO said customers loans went up by 18 percent to PHP1.8 trillion while total deposits rose by 11 percent to PHP2.1 trillion.

In particular, low-cost savings and current account (CASA), which account for 73 percent of the total, ticked-up by 12 percent.

With these output, the bank posted a 25 percent increase in net interest income to PHP81.8 billion.

During the same period, non-interest income went up by 13 percent to PHP47.2 billion, boosted by the 30 percent rise in fee-based income to PHP28.9 billion.

Last year, the bank’s insurance premiums increased by 23 percent to PHP9.9 billion and this, the disclosure said, “compensated for the expected 20 per cent decline in trading and forex gains to PHP3.9 billion given the challenging market conditions.”

“Overall, gross operating income advanced by 20 per cent to PHP129 billion,” it said.

The bank’s plan to further widen its reach through opening up of new branches, in turn, increased operating expenses by 21 percent to PHP84.9 billion.

Last year, the bank opened 76 branches bringing the total to 1,180, including the one in Hong Kong.

The bank ended 2017 with a gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 1.2 percent from year-ago’s 1.3 percent  while NPL cover got better to 146 percent from  2016’s 139 percent.

It’s capital amounted to PHP298.3 billion, with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio at 14.5 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively, higher than minimum regulatory levels.

BDO was able to raise PHP60 billion in fresh equity through a stock rights offer (SRO) in January last year.

“For 2018, BDO believes that its focused growth strategy, robust business franchise and solid balance sheet and capital base place the Bank well-positioned to tap opportunities in growth sectors benefiting from the country’s favorable demographics and the government’s infrastructure build-up,” the disclosure added.