Metrobank’s profit surged by 49% in Q3

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company said Thursday unaudited consolidated net income jumped 49 percent in the third quarter to P8.5 billion from a year ago.  

The figure brough the bank’s total income in the nine-month period to P21.6 billion.

Metrobank attributed the solid performance to the consistent growth in operating revenues on the back of moderate loan growth and margin expansion, strong trading and FX gains and higher fee-based income.

“The bank is proud to have sustained strong growth momentum by navigating well amid the dynamic movements in the local economy.  We continue to focus on customer service, profitability, and quality growth,” said Metrobank president Fabian Dee.  

Metrobank said that as of September this year, its CASA ratio improved to 64 percent of 1.6 trillion total deposits.  This provided liquidity to support loan growth of 7 percent to P1.4 trillion.  Metrobank’s net interest income grew 10 percent in the nine-month period to P56.2 billion, and accounted for 70 percent of the bank’s total revenues of P80 billion.  

Meanwhile, the bank said it successfully raised P13.75 billion from the public offering of 3.5-year peso bonds which were issued and listed on the Philippine Dealing Exchange on Oct. 24, 2019.

“This is the fifth time Metrobank tapped its board-approved P100-billion bond and commercial paper program. Due to the robust demand from both institutional, high net worth and retail clients, Metrobank upsized the issue amount to P13.75 billion from the original target of P5.0 billion,” it said.

It said that given the strong investor interest, the offer period was cut short by one week from the initial announcement of Oct. 3 to 16. The bonds have a coupon of 4.50 percent and will have quarterly interest payments.

Metrobank tapped ING Bank N.V., Manila branch and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead arrangers for the issuance. Since November 2018, Metrobank has raised P70.50 billion from peso bond offerings. With Julito G. Rada