Union Bank posts 300% profit growth in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP) has recorded its highest quarterly growth in terms of net earnings with a 300 percent growth in the first three months of 2012.

From P708 million in the first three months of 2011, earnings ballooned to P2.84 billion this year.

UBP president and chief operating officer Victor B. Valdepenas said it is not only the bank’s highest growth recorded in a given quarter, but “it is also a third of the P6.59 billion net income recorded for the whole of 2011, and we are only in the first quarter of 2012.”

He explained that the universal bank of the Aboitiz Group took advantage of the volatility of the fixed income market due to the low interest rate regime and the strong performance of the equities market.

Barring any dramatic change in the direction of the country’s capital markets as well as economy in general, the bank may surpass its original target of a 10- to 15-percent growth in net earnings this year compared to the previous year.

 Valdepenas said that with the kind of growth in the first three months of the year, “we may surpass all targets and all expectations.”

Trading gains in the first three months of 2012 grew to P2.6 billion from P186 million in the same period last year.

Total loans expanded to P115 billion by the end of March, surpassing the P105 billion as of end 2011.

“Consumer loans outpaced all the rest of the segments, while corporate lending was basically flatish as they went to the capital markets,” the UBP chief executive explained.

Net interest income rose slightly to P1.77 billion in the first quarter this year, from the P1.76 billion in the same period last year.

Total resources stood at P260 billion while total capital funds remained a strong P44 billion.