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Tag: Finance

  • BPI books P13.8-b net profit

    BPI books P13.8-b net profit

    Bank of the Philippine Islands, the third-largest bank in the country, posted an 8-percent increase in net income in the first nine months to P13.84 billion from P12.8 billion year-on-year on the strength of its core businesses.

    Total revenues increased 9 percent or P3.67 billion to P44.1 billion year-on-year as both net interest income and non-interest income grew P2.98 billion and P0.68 billion, respectively.

    Operating expenses rose 6.7 percent to P22.89 billion on year, a slower rate than revenue growth. As a result, the bank’s cost-to-income ratio improved to 51.9 percent from 53.1 percent a year ago. Return on equity decreased to 12.6 percent, from last year’s 13.3 percent.

    Both total loans and total deposits rose in double digits year-on-year. Total loans stood at P780.07 billion, an increase of 11.2 percent on year. Corporate loans accounted for 76.6 percent while retail loans stood at 23.4 percent.

    “Gross 90-day non-performing loans rose slightly to 1.9 percent from 1.8 percent of total loans, while loan loss cover remained 107 percent. Total deposits stood at P1.18 trillion, up 13.3 percent higher year-on-year. CASA ratio ended the quarter at 72.5 percent,” the bank said.

    Total assets during the period stood at P1.41 trillion, 8.8 percent or P113.78 billion higher than that of the same period last year.

    Investment securities closed at P303.28 billion, a 15.2 percent hike year-on-year. The bank’s investment securities remained mostly held-to-maturity, at P240.87 billion.

    Capital, net of cash dividends of P3.54 billion paid to shareholders on Sept. 2, 2015, ended at P150.44 billion. This represents a 9.3-percent growth in total capital versus September last year.

    Capital adequacy ratio was at 14.9 percent from 15.7 percent a year ago. CET1 stood at 14.0 percent.

    Earlier in the year, the Asian Banker named BPI as the Best Retail Bank in the Philippines for 2015. BPI also received the Best Electronic Delivery Channel award during the inaugural Bank Marketing Awards night, organized by the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines.

    The award recognizes the bank that successfully implemented the most innovative electronic delivery systems and achieved the desired results in terms of usage and acceptance.

    BPI, the first bank in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia, is a commercial bank with an expanded banking license. BPI’s services include consumer banking and lending, asset management, insurance, securities brokerage and distribution, foreign exchange, leasing, and corporate and investment banking.

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  • ING researches online banking venture in China

    ING researches online banking venture in China

    ING, the largest Dutch financial services company, said on Wednesday it was researching an online banking joint venture in China, as it posted quarterly results boosted by an economic recovery in the Netherlands and strong growth in Germany.

    ING reported third-quarter underlying pretax profit of 1.50 billion euros ($1.64 billion), compared with 1.49 billion euros in the same period last year, beating analysts’ mean forecast.

    The figures, and an upbeat outlook, came as many leading European-based banks, including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered are shedding thousands of jobs and reorienting their businesses to meet stricter capital requirements.

    Morgan Stanley analysts, who have an “overweight” rating on ING shares, said the numbers were better than expected thanks to falling provisions on bad loans. They dipped to 261 million euros from 322 million euros.

    ING stock was the best performer on the Amsterdam stock exchange, rising more than 4 percent. They are up 26 percent year to date.

    CEO Ralph Hamers said the bank was considering entering the Chinese online banking market with local partner Bank of Beijing, and was in the preliminary stages of researching the option.

    Hamers said he believed the Chinese stock market had stabilized and measures taken by the government would “help economic recovery by the end of this year.”

    Chief risk officer Wilfred Nagel said Chinese loan default rates, though they had risen, were still lower than in Europe. He said the Chinese retail banking sector was an attractive opportunity.

    “China adds the size of the GDP of the Netherlands to its economy every year. This is still in absolute terms an economy that grows quite strongly,” he said.

    ING’s online banking platform is helping it add 1,000 retail customers per week in Germany.

    Nagel said the Chinese discussions were at an early stage and no decisions had yet been taken on timing or ownership.

    In the earnings report, ING said it grew its lending portfolio by 1.6 billion euros.

    Net interest margin improved slightly quarter-on-quarter to 1.46 percent from 1.45 percent.

    “In Europe, sentiment is holding up,” Hamers said. “We see a recovery in bank lending in countries like Belgium and Germany.”

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  • ANZ grows retail footprint in Asia

    ANZ grows retail footprint in Asia

    The branch has been established to service multinational and joint venture companies with a presence in Myanmar, as well as international companies looking to enter the country from ANZ’s network countries.

    ANZ said the Myanmar branch provides comprehensive solutions covering a full range of banking products including payments and cash management, electronic banking, lending, foreign exchange, and fund-based and non-fund-based trade finance.

    The branch also offers specialist banking services for natural resources, utilities and infrastructure, telecommunication, consumer goods and other global diversified sectors that are expanding in Myanmar.

    Andrew Géczy, ANZ’s chief executive for international and institutional banking, said the licence approval is the final step in the bank’s plans to deepen its presence in the Greater Mekong, following its recent branch opening in Thailand.

    “As one of the only international banks with a presence in all five Greater Mekong countries, ANZ is uniquely placed to play a leading role for customers wanting to enter Myanmar,” he said.

  • Krung Thai Bank makes profit

    Krung Thai Bank makes profit

    KTB posted 3Q15 earnings of Bt5.3bn, plunging 42% YoY and 37% QoQ. The result was 11% below our forecast but 4% below the Bloomberg consensus. This was attributable to bigger loan-loss provisioning (LLP) than was modeled. KTB set its 3Q15 LLP of Bt10.5bn against our numbers of Bt8.5bn. Pre-provision operating profit was Bt17bn, up 21% YoY but down 1% QoQ. The 9M15 earnings represent 90% of our FY15 earnings projection.

    Results highlights

    Lending was up 0.2% QoQ and 1.6% YTD—in line with our forecast. NIM for the quarter came in at 3.04%, up 3bps QoQ and 19bps, boosted by greater emphasis on the corporate and retail sectors and well managed funding cost from the previous quarter. LLP soared 270% YoY and 39% QoQ to Bt10.5bn (equaling credit cost of 2.1%). Note that the bank received a tax benefit of about Bt300m from troubled debt restructuring and extra LLP for Sahaviriya Steel Industry (SSI) in the quarter. Therefore, its corporate tax rate was down to 15% in 3Q15 from 18% in the same period last year.

    KTB’s NPL/loan ratio rose to 4.03% at end-September from 2.96% three months earlier (from SSI, and the small SME and retail sectors). Likewise, its loan-loss-coverage ratio dipped to 103% in 3Q15 from 125% last quarter. Fee income inched up 41% YoY and 12% QoQ to Bt7.3bn in 3Q15. OPEX was Bt12.2bn, an increase of 19% YoY but down 1% QoQ. KTB’s 3Q15 cost/income ratio was 44.2%, close to last quarter and down from the 45.6% reached in the same period last year.

  • Philippines’ BDO sets up first GCC branch

    Philippines’ BDO sets up first GCC branch

    Manila-headquartered BDO Unibank, the largest bank in the Philippines, has become the first Filipino bank to set up an office in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) where it will operate within the premises of the UAE’s Dubai International Financial Center, a financial free zone and one of the largest financial hubs in the Middle East.

    The establishment of a GCC office is a reaction to the growing number of Philippine expats in the region and their banking needs, Nestor Tan, president and CEO of BDO Unibank, explained. Filipinos form one of the largest expat communities in the GCC, with an estimated 700,000 of them living and working in the UAE. More than 1.2mn are said to stay in Saudi Arabia and over 200,000 in Qatar, and all are the source of significant money flows back to the Philippines.

    “Setting up a representative office in the Dubai International Financial Center was driven by our objective to further widen our overseas network to provide support to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and residents,” Tan said, adding that “the expansion into Dubai will boost our capability to service the needs of our countrymen in the entire Middle East and, hopefully, make the bank a catalyst for the progress of financial inclusion of the expatriates in the Philippines.”
    The new branch comes on top of several partnerships BDO Unibank already has in the Gulf. It struck a deal with Emirates NBD in January this year to provide quick money transfer services to the Philippines. It also cooperates with UAE Exchange, Al Ansari Exchange and Al Ghurair Exchange for remittance services, as well as with Gulf Exchange in Qatar and other banks and financial service providers in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

    OFWs are the third largest source for remittances globally, with $28bn sent back home in 2014, only being topped by Indians and Chinese who sent home the biggest chunk at $70bn and $64bn, respectively. With regards to Filipino remittances, estimates are that more than half of total remittances to the Philippines are originating from the GCC, making it a huge business for regional money remittance services.

    The new branch in Dubai, however, aims at widening the scope of banking services on offer for Filipinos, Tan indicated, as well as at extending the reach of BDO Unibank’s portfolio within GCC countries as the bank also wants to address possible Philippine expat and Middle East investors and provide more sophisticated financial services than just remittances. The bank offers a variety of corporate, commercial and retail banking services, including traditional loan and deposit products. This is in addition to treasury, trust banking, private banking, wealth and cash management, leasing and finance, insurance, retail cash cards and credit card services.

    BDO Unibank – its full name is Banco de Oro Universal Bank – was founded in 1968 as a small savings bank in Manila and became a universal bank only in 1996. Today, it has over 870 branches in the Philippines and one other foreign branch in Hong Kong. It is one of the many banks owned by Chinese-Filipino businessmen in the Philippines, namely tycoon Henry Sy – listed by Forbes Magazine as the richest man in the Philippines – through his conglomerate SM Group of Companies, one of the country’s largest business groups with activities spanning from retail, mall operations and property development to financial services.

    Since 2001, the bank grew through remarkable mergers and acquisitions, among them the Philippine operations of Banco Santander, Citibank, UOB, Deutsche Bank and GE Money. In March 2008, it was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. Its main competitors on the home soil are Metrobank, owned by Chinese-Filipino business tycoon George Ty, and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the oldest bank in the Philippines and a subsidiary of Ayala Corp, the country’s largest business conglomerate majority-owned by the influential Ayala family, which is of Spanish descent.

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  • China Finance Online Announces New Office in Beijing

    China Finance Online Announces New Office in Beijing

    China Finance Online Co. Limited (“China Finance Online”, or the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a leading web-based financial services company that provides Chinese retail investors with online access to securities and commodities trading, wealth management products, investment advisory services, as well as financial database and analytics services to institutional customers, announced that the Company has moved into a new office in 17th floor of Fuzhuo Plaza A, No.28 Xuanwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100052, P.R.China.

    The office move would result in a substantial reduction to the Company’s current office rental expenses. It is also part of the efforts on team integration in order to improve product offerings and user conversion for iTouGu, the Company’s one-stop mobile platform for retail investors in China.

    About China Finance Online

    China Finance Online Co. Limited is a leading web-based financial services company that provides Chinese retail investors with online access to securities and commodities trading services, wealth management products, securities investment advisory services. The Company’s two prominent flagship portal sites, www.jrj.com and www.stockstar.com, are ranked among the top financial websites in China. In addition to the web-based securities trading platform, the Company offers basic financial software, information services and securities investment advisory services to retail investors in China. Through its subsidiary, Shenzhen Genius Information Technology Co. Ltd., the Company provides financial database and analytics to institutional customers including domestic financial, research, academic and regulatory institutions. China Finance Online also provides brokerage services in Hong Kong.

  • Itochu, CP Group team up with Chinese companies to set up e-commerce venture in Shanghai FTZ

    Itochu, CP Group team up with Chinese companies to set up e-commerce venture in Shanghai FTZ

    Five companies from three nations are banding together to sell imported popular household products like diapers and milk powder in China.

    The partners are Itochu, Japan’s third-largest trading house; Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand’s biggest conglomerate; and Chinese companies CITIC, China Mobile and Shanghai Information Investment Inc.

    An agreement forming the venture, which will operate through a cross-border e-commerce website out of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, was signed yesterday.

    The venture, which is named Face to Face Co., aims to tap a growing market in China for premium foreign products. Until now, most consumers accessed such products mainly through gray market channels, expensive offshore orders, overseas trips or limited online retailers in China.

    The new system will end long waiting times for deliveries, lower prices by up to 30 percent and ensure that products meet quality standards.

    The five partners are investing US$500 million, and the company will benefit from preferential policies offered by the Free Trade Zone.

    “We predict the scale of cross-border e-commerce in China will jump from nearly 76.7 billion yuan (US$12.4 billion) in 2013 to about 1 trillion yuan by 2018, Itochu said in a statement yesterday. “We see huge demand for premium products in the country.”

    The new company plans to buy an e-platform to run its operations. It will take over online shopping mall Kuajingtong, which was formerly run by state-owned Shanghai Orient Electronic Payment Co. The partnership will take advantage of China Mobile’s vast user base in promoting online orders for goods.

    Japan’s Nikkei Newspaper reported that the new company plans to accrue sales of US$666.7 billion by 2019 and plans to list in China in 2020. The report could not be immediately verified.

    Itochu said the platform will begin operation later this year, offering nearly 100,000 Japanese-made items, including household appliances, food, diapers milk powder and possibly clothing. Charoen Pokphand said it plans to sell Thai food products on the site.

    The Free Trade Zone, launched in 2013, is China’s pilot project for freer trade between the mainland and overseas. Flexible regulations will allow access for both Chinese and overseas companies to import and sell foreign goods domestically.

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  • Lululemon names J. Crew executive as finance chief

    Lululemon names J. Crew executive as finance chief

    Lululemon Athletica Inc. named J. Crew Group Inc. Chief Financial Officer Stuart Haselden as its new finance chief, with an expected start date of 2 February.

    To view the full article (note: you must be a Wall Street Journal Online subscriber), visit The Wall Street Journal Online.

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