PNB profit drops 38% in H1

MANILA, Philippines -  The absence of one-off gains from the sale of foreclosed assets and lower earnings from trading and investment securities pulled down the net income of Philippine National Bank (PNB) by 38.3 percent in the first half.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the bank owned by tobacco and airline magnate Lucio Tan said it booked a net income of P2.67 billion from January to June, down from P4.32 billion in the same period last year.

“The bank’s net income for the first semester was lower than the P4.3 billion posted for the same period in 2016 that included one-time gains amounting to P2.7 billion,” the bank said.

The country’s fifth largest bank in terms of assets recorded an eight percent increase in net interest income to P10.3 billion in the first half of the year from P9.55 billion in the same period last year.

Interest income on loans and receivables went up 12.7 percent to P10.64 billion from P9.44 billion, while interest earnings on trading and investment securities fell 20.4 percent to P1.75 billion from P2.2 billion.

PNB’s loan book grew 16 percent, boosted by increases in loans to corporate, commercial and small and medium-sized enterprises.

“During the first half of the year, the bank also accessed the BSP’s term deposit facility which offered better yields that led to a substantial hike in interest income earned from placements with banks and others, thus more than offsetting the lower interest income contribution from trading and investment securities,” it said.

On the other hand, non-interest income reached P3.4 billion, lower than the year-ago level due to the one-off revenue earned in the first half of 2016 consisting of net gains from major disposals of foreclosed assets, net gain on the sale of shares of stock of a subsidiary and collection of non-performing assets.