Robinsons Bank likely to meet 2016 growth goals
ROBINSONS BANK Corp. (Robinsons Bank) expects to have surpassed its overall growth guidance for 2016, with the bank eyeing to continue expanding its footprint across the country this year, the bank’s chief said.
“We expect it to exceed our budget... we are exceeding most of our 2016 targets,” Robinsons Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Elfren Antonio S. Sarte told Business-World in an interview when asked how the bank performed in 2016.
He noted that Robinsons Bank will be able to achieve and go beyond its growth guidance last year in terms of asset size, income and loan portfolio.
The bank’s top executive said in terms of loans, “we will end at about P40 billion” for 2016. “That’s about almost double than where we were in 2015… We’re growing faster than the industry in most of our loan growth,” Mr. Sarte said.
For 2017, the official expects the bank’s total loan portfolio “to go up to P60 billion.”
Mr. Sarte earlier said the bank was poised to grow its bottom line to about P228.8 million by end- 2016, while its total loan book was expected to book a double-digit increase of 40% to reach P40.5 billion, on the back of its retail and commercial lending business.
In the first half of 2016 alone, the banking arm of the Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings, Inc. saw its net profit reach P120.3 million, 89.7% higher than the P63.4 million it booked in January-June 2015, on the back of growth in its core income.
The lender’s chief executive had said that Robinsons Bank’s income as of July 2016 reached P157.7 million, already exceeding the bank’s 2015 profit of P173.6 million.
Robinsons Bank’s interest income reached P1.36 billion in the first six months of 2016 from only P1.2 billion in the comparable 2015 period.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sarte added that the bank ended 2016 with a total branch network of 124, up by 24 from the 112 branches the bank had at end-2015, which were mostly situated in restricted areas.
He said Robinsons Bank wants to end 2017 with a total of 146
branches, with most of its new offices to be located in the provinces.
“Actually in nearby Metro Manila, around half, and then half will be provincial,” Mr. Sarte added, noting that the bank will put up branches in Taguig, Muntinlupa and the Rizal area, as well as in Davao and Cagayan de Oro.
The mid-sized lender intends to have 200 branches by 2020.
Mr. Sarte added that the bank likely ended 2016 with a total of 260,000 clients — a figure it wants to “almost double” this year as it targets “over 500,000” customers for 2017.
Robinsons Bank is also ramping up its expansion efforts this year, including boosting its sales force and product offerings, he said.