Bank of Commerce earnings hit P360.6 million  in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — The earnings of the banking unit of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) more than doubled in the first quarter on the back of strong core business activities despite the continuing local and international market volatilities.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Bank of Commerce said its net income reached P360.6 million from January to March, P215.3 million higher than the P146.3 million recorded in the same period last year.

Driven by the growth in earning assets, the listed bank reported a 6.5 percent increase in net interest earnings to P1.47 billion from P1.38 billion, as interest income grew by 6.5 percent to P1.66 billion, from P1.56 billion, while interest expense went up by six percent to P194.88 million from P183.87 million.

Other income almost doubled to P271.77 million in the first quarter from P140.84 million in the same period last year, as earnings from service charges, fees and commissions jumped by 42 percent to P159.09 million from P111.99 million, while gains on foreclosure and sale of property surged by 72.4 percent to P85.01 million from P49.3 million.

Bank of Commerce also booked foreign exchange gains amounting to P42.59 million in the first quarter, reversing the P3.99 million losses recorded in the same quarter last year.

On the other hand, losses from trading and investment securities inched up by 1.7 percent to P29.08 million from P28.6 million.

As it continues to demonstrate operational efficiency, the SMC-led bank trimmed its operating expenses by 2.7 percent to P1.24 billion from P1.28 billion, fueled by increases in management and professional fees, amortization of software costs, taxes and licenses as well as insurance.

For the first quarter, the bank’s provision for credit and impairment losses plunged by 98.7 percent to P771,500 from P59.86 million.

Its total assets inched up by 3.3 percent to P206.4 billion in end-March this year from P199.71 billion in end-2021 mainly due to the 13.8 percent growth in loans and receivables.

Bank of Commerce booked a double digit growth in total equity to P26.7 billion in the first quarter from the P23.4 billion in the previous quarter, spurred mainly by proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) last March.

It successfully raised P3.36 billion after selling 280.6 million common shares at P12 per share. Proceeds will fund the bank’s lending activities and finance capital expenditure requirements in connection with the upgrading of its ATM fleet and its core banking system.

San Miguel Properties Inc. and San Miguel Corporation Retirement Plan hold 39.89 percent and 38.54 percent ownership of the bank’s issued shares.

SMC, through SMC Equivest Corp., invested an additional P5.5 billion into the bank to boost efforts of upgrading from a commercial to universal bank. This translated to a 39 percent jump in the bank’s total capital to P23 billion last year.

Bank of Commerce has a network of 140 branches and aims to deploy more ATMs in addition to the 253 count at end March.