COL Financial profit drops 16% in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines - Leading online stockbroker COL Financial Group Inc. said its third quarter profits soared over a quarter but earnings for the first nine months of the year declined double digits due to lower value turnover in the local stock exchange.

In a regulatory filing, COL said its profits in the January to September period declined 16.1 percent to P249.3 million from P297 million last year.

Its third quarter earnings, however, rose 28.4 percent year-on-year to P115.2 million despite a “challenging period for Philippine stock brokers in general as value turnover in the PSE remained weak.”

COL said it was able to buck the downtrend through the steady growth of its client base.

The company’s client base already stood at 104,242 as of end-September, 34.6 percent more than in the same period last year.

With the increase in its client base, COL’s commission revenues improved 15.2 percent year-on-year to P120.1 million.

“We are pleased to announce the continuous recovery of our profits for the third quarter. This is to no small part due to the growing number of Filipino investors who continue to put their trust in COL as their partner for achieving their long term financial goals,” said COL president and chief executive officer Dino Bate.

COL said its market share in terms of value turnover in the PSE also grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter to 4.1 percent from 3.3 percent a year ago.