Asia United Bank sees 20% higher net income this year

MANILA, Philippines -  Asia United Bank (AUB) said it expects a full year net income of P1.2 billion or 20 percent higher than the P1 billion recorded in 2010.

“The third quarter looks better than the last quarter, which was already showing signs of strong growth,” said Antonio Agcaoili Jr., the medium-sized commercial bank’s executive vice president.

He said after a relatively poor first semester, the bank expects to take advantage of the resurgence of the economy, including strong demand for loans by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Corporate and commercial lending, however, remains weak on either low interest rates or the ability of corporates to tap the capital markets.

“We are looking at SME lending, however, improved treasury and forex gains, and consumer lending to aid in achieving the full year targets,” Agcaoili added.

In the first seven months of the year, AUB’s net income fell 29.7 percent due to weak trading gains in the treasury and foreign currency assets. From P754.9 million in the first seven months of 2010, earnings fell to P531 million in the same period this year.

But the month of July signaled a turnaround from the poor performance of securities and foreign exchange (forex) gains. Trading gains rose 152 percent, or from P84.7 million in July 2010 to P213.4 million.

At the end of July, loans rose four percent from P1.47 billion in 2010 to P1.48 billion this year.

Total loan portfolio stood at P19 billion with majority or P13 billion accounted by commercial loans. Auto loans reached P633 million this year, from P446 million a year ago.

Deposits stood at P34.8 billion while capital funds stood at P9 billion. Trust volume increased 51 percent to P11 billion.

Outstanding growth, meanwhile, was reflected by AUB’s remittance business, which grew roughly 26 percent, or from P175.2 million in 2010 to P220 million as of end-July this year.

AUB is predominantly controlled by the Jacinto Ng Group of Companies, which includes Republic Biscuit Corp. (Rebisco), Kuo Yu Philippines Holdings Inc., Lamba Holdings Corp. and Citio Maunlad Investments Corp. The bank’s minority stakeholder is Magis Equity Ventures of Singapore.