BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender in terms of assets, said net income in 2016 rose 4.4 percent to a record P26.1 billion from P25 billion a year ago on robust growth across all business segments.
The bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Friday the full-year performance matched its earnings guidance for the year.
Customer loan portfolio increased 16 percent to P1.5 trillion, while total deposits rose 15 percent to P1.9 trillion on the sustained growth in the bank’s low-cost CASA (current and savings account) deposits. Net interest income climbed 15 percent to P65.6 billion, reflecting the quality growth in the loan portfolio.
Meanwhile, fee-based income grew 15 percent to P22.2 billion and insurance premium contributed P8.0 billion, as the bank’s efforts at diversifying its income stream start to bear fruit. The fee income sources compensated for the decline in trading gains to P4.8 billion.
Gross operating income settled at P107.2 billion. The bank’s operating expenses advanced 27 percent to P70.1 billion, primarily reflecting the consolidation of One Network Bank and BDO Life Insurance. Excluding these, operating expenses would have risen only by 11 percent.
The bank set aside P3.8 billion in provisions for the year even as gross nonperforming loan ratio held steady at 1.3 percent, while NPL cover remained high at 139 percent.
Capital base stood at P217.5 billion, with capital adequacy ratio and common equity Tier 1 ratio at 12.4 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.
The bank in January this year successfully completed a rights offer, raising a P60 billion ($1.2 billion) in fresh capital and boosting the bank’s consolidated CAR to an estimated 15.7 percent.
BDO plans to use the proceeds to support medium-term targets and provide a comfortable buffer over higher minimum capital requirements with the staggered implementation of the domestic systemically important bank surcharge.
Earlier, bank president Nestor Tan said BDO was planning to put up 50 to 70 branches this year, the regular target every year, depending on the growth prospects. He said most of these branches would be outside the National Capital Region.