Security Bank posts 17% profit hike

MANILA, Philippines - Security Bank Corp. posted a net income of P1.43 billion in the first three months of the year, up 17 percent from a year ago.

Security Bank president & CEO Alberto Villarosa said the better earnings performance was primarily driven by the 43 percent growth in the bank’s net interest income.

The income for the first three months of the year resulted in a return on shareholders’ equity of 13.8 percent.

As of end-March 2014, total resources grew to P377 billion, up 46 percent from the same period in 2013.

The bank’s loan portfolio increased 39 percent to P166 billion while deposits stood at P211 billion or 49 percent higher than the comparative period in 2013.

Capital grew 11 percent to P42 billion as of March 31, 2014.

Villarosa said they recently received Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP) approval of the regular semestral cash dividend of 50-centavo per share and a special cash dividend of 50-centavo per share earlier declared by the bank’s board on March 25, 2014.

The record date for the P1 per share cash dividend is May 7, 2014 and the payment date is June 2, 2014.

The bank opened 36 new branches in 2013, bringing its network to 244.