COL Financial Q1 profit: P116-M (down 27%)

COL Financial [COL 2.28, up 3.6%; 31% avgVol] [link] reported a Q1 net income of P116 million, down 26.6% from its Q1/23 net income of P158 million. COL attributed the dip in performance to the inability of “the favorable impact of higher yields... to offset the drop in commission revenues.” Interest income was up 5.9% y/y to P182 million thanks to a 50 basis point rise in average interest rates (and what COL refers to as the “strategic allocation of idle funds”). Commissions income was down 26.4% y/y to P93 million. COL added 16,388 new customers in the year between reporting periods, a 3.1% increase to 539,085. 

MB bottom-line: COL’s revenues and even customer adds are up on an annualized basis over what it did in FY23, but how you consume that info depends on how you view Q1. Was the 8% increase in the PSEi enough of an attractant to look at COL’s slight uptick in numbers as an underperformance, or was that just something of a hollow rally that didn’t catch the imagination of the local smalltime investor (COL’s bread and butter)? At least COL gets the benefit of “higher for longer” rates while its fundamental trading business stagnates.

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