BPI earnings up 35.6% to P12.7 B in H1

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) continued to book strong income growth in the first half.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), BPI reported a 35.6 percent increase in earnings to P12.67 billion in the first half, while revenues rose 20.9 percent to P35.2 billion.

BPI president and CEO Cezar Consing said the listed bank experienced robust client volumes in the first semester.

“Unusually strong markets results complemented steady growth in client revenues. The quality of our client business is high, and we are scaling up to do more and more,” Consing said.

The country’s fourth largest bank in terms of assets said its business with top corporates grew 25.5 percent, driving growth in overall corporate business to 20.4 percent.

BPI said its net interest income went up 9.6 percent to P20.7 billion, while non-interest income jumped 41.7 percent to P14.5 billion.

The bank’s loan portfolio expanded 18.6 percent to P904.38 billion as of end-June due to the 20.4 percent rise in corporate loans, while deposits rose 10.8 percent to P1.33 trillion.

Despite the increase in its loan book, BPI said its gross 90-day non-performing loans dropped to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent while reserve cover stood at 117.8 percent.

BPI’s recent landmark financing agreements include the P12.5 billion loan for the Tiwi-Makban geothermal power plant of AP Renewables of the Aboitiz Group as well as the P28.8 billion deal for the acquisition of UK’s Quorn Foods by Monde Nissin.

It is also the domestic lead underwriter of the planned P30 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Pilipinas Shell and is the joint issue manager for the P10 billion preferred shares offering of Double Dragon.

“Growth drivers for non-interest income were securities trading, bank fees and commissions, bancassurance, and capital markets,” BPI added.

Income from investment securities slipped 2.13 percent to P268.33 billion in the first half of the year.

BPI decided to sell a portion of its held to maturity (HTM) securities last June to take advantage of a rallying bond market to fund loan growth and reduce relatively expensive deposits and enhance capital.

The bank said its held to maturity balance declined 8.17 percent to P216.66 billion.

Total assets of BPI went up 11.2 percent to P1.58 trillion in end-June while its capital went up 7.4 percent to P160.79 billion.