COL Financial reports flat earnings in 2013

MANILA, Philippines - Leading online stockbrokerage COL Financial said its 2013 net profit was virtually unchanged at P303.6 million due to the normalization of the firm’s effective tax rate.

Normalized effective tax rate was 21.3 percent last year compared with 9.8 percent in 2012.

The company’s return on equity, however, remained very healthy at 23.6 percent, COL said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Consolidated revenues rose 14 percent to P741 million, driven by local operations which saw a 17.2 percent jump in operating profit to a record P368.9 million.

Commissions, which accounted for 73 percent of Philippine revenue, went up by 16.7 percent to P540.5 million.

Operating profit increased 13.8 percent to P386 million while interest income improved by 7.9 percent to P198.7 million due to higher utilization of COL’s margin facility and the growth in the company’s cash position. 

COL said it benefited from the growing popularity of investments in the Philippine stock market brought about by falling interest rates and growing customer base.

The number of its clients surged 78.7 percent to 82,476 as of end-December 2013 from only 46,166 the previous year.  This has allowed the company to maintain its position as the number one stockbroker in terms of volume of transactions with a market share of 23.1 percent.

Client equity also increased significantly, exceeding the $1 billion mark to P47.9 billion.  The amount represented a 39.2 percent jump from the P34.4 billion recorded in 2012.

“The numbers are a strong testament of the investing public’s growing level of trust towards COL,” company president and CEO Conrado Bate said.

“One of our major objectives going forward is to expand our products and services so that we can better address the needs of our existing clients and other Filipino investors,” he added.

Last December, COL forged an agreement with iRemit which will make it easier for overseas Filipinos, immigrants and other nationalities to buy Philippine stocks online through COL’s platform.

In January, it inked an agreement with BPI Asset Management & Trust Group and Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc.  This will allow COL to address the needs of more Filipino investors as clients will eventually be able to purchase professionally managed funds and other financial products outside of equities online through the COL website.