Robinsons Bank expects to meet income guidance

GOKONGWEI-LED Robinsons Bank Corp. (Robinsons Bank) expects to surpass its earnings last year and hit its income guidance on the back of encouraging results seen in its first semester earnings, driven by the surge in loans, fees and favorable trading gains.

Robinsons Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Elfren Antonio S. Sarte said the bank is poised to grow its net profit to about P228.8 million, which the bank set as its income target earlier this year.

The bank’s income for the January to June period already reached P120.3 million, almost double or 89.7% higher than its first-half performance last year. At end-June 2015, the bank’s income stood at just P63.4 million.

“We are on track to hit our income guidance for the year of P228.8 million. Our July 2016 income is at P175.7 million which already exceeds our 2015 fullyear income,” Mr. Sarte said in a text message on Wednesday.

Robinsons Bank is the banking arm of Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, Inc., the Philippines’ second largest conglomerate in terms of market value.

In 2015, the mid-sized lender raked in P173.6 million in earnings, higher than its 2014 net income of P126.6 million as its core profit continued to expand.

“Income drivers remain to be strong interest income earnings with the growth in our consumer loan portfolio. We also took ad-

vantage of favorable yields in the treasury market,” the bank executive added when asked for the growth drivers of the bank for the rest of the year.

The bank’s interest income reached P1.36 billion in the first six months of 2016 from only P1.2 billion in 2015. Fees and trading income also contributed to the income performance of the bank growing by 12.7% from last year.

As of end-June, the bank had a network of 116 branches nationwide compared to 95 during the same period in 2015.

Mr. Sarte had said that the bank plans to add more branches in both Metro Manila and provincial areas to further expand market reach and tap more clients.

Earlier, the official also said that Robinsons Bank may soon sell insurance products in its branches as it looks to enter the bancassurance business.

He said the bank has been receiving queries for possible bancassurance deals, and the bank “is looking at that possibility.”