PCI Leasing net income drops 15% to P258M

PCI Leasing & Finance Inc. reported a net income of P258.17 million in 2003, a slight decrease of 15 percent from the P306.93-million profit in 2002.

Officials said the reason for the decrease was the provisioning for possible losses amounting to P230 million.

Total assets stood at P5.13 billion, or 22 percent higher than the year-ago level, PCI Leasing said in its annual shareholders meeting yesterday.

Gross income also rose 35 percent to P778 million, reflecting a higher level of financing activities.

The publicly-listed subsidiary of Equitable PCI Bank ended 2003 with finance receivables at P4.474 billion, up 26 percent from the end-2002 figure. The company strengthened its balance sheet by increasing its allowance for probable losses supplemented by prudence in lending strategies.

PCI Leasing vice-chairman and Equitable PCI Bank president Rene J. Buenaventura said that with the company’s strong base, it could focus more attention on growth by extracting the benefits available from their more diversified business lines.

"The key to sustaining growth is maintaining a sharp focus on providing customers great products at reasonable prices and with excellent service," Buenaventura added.

Meanwhile, officials admitted that the key to its continued strength is the maximization and utilization of the client base of its parent bank.

"Enhancement of this bank-branch referral system to maximize business opportunities from Equitable PCI Bank considerably enhanced PCI Leasing’s market visibility and allowed us to bolster our market share," Manolo C. Arzadon, PCI Leasing president and chief executive officer told stockholders.

Arzadon also said that the leasing firm must continue to improve and expand its products and services, as well as look from new opportunities from its exising clients.