PNB sets income guidance growth at 15% a year

A profit guidance for Philippine National Bank (PNB) placed the lender's income growth at 15 percent a year in the next five years, largely driven by loans.

 

“That is our growth guidance,” PNB president and chief executive Omar Byron Mier told reporters during a briefing in Manila on Tuesday.

 

PNB, according to the bank official, basically covers four loan portfolios that include “large corporations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), consumers, and government sectors—especially local government units (LGUs).”

 

Large corporations account for 70 percent of the loans, and SMEs, consumers and LGUs accounting for 30 percent, he added.

 

The lender’s ties with state companies and LGUs would stay strong, considering the bank was once owned by the government, noted Ma. Elena Piccio, head of Institutional Banking Group. “It’s a very profitable sector… a very good business for us,” she said.

 

LGUs account for 17 percent of PNB's loan portfolio, Picco added.

 

Moving forward, Piccio said the bank is tracking the infrastructure projects under the government’s public-private partnership program. “That is one of the missions of the bank, she said. “LGU loans are also related to infrastructure,” she added.

 

The bank is bent on pursuing the partnership with government, “because we are very much behind other Asean nations in terms of infrastructure,” Piccio added.

 

Sixty days from Tuesday, or sometime in late July, the bank intends to raise P5 billion by issuing long-term negotiable certificates of deposit which will mature in five and a half years and the proceeds of which PNB intends to finance asset growth. 

 

“We plan to do it at least 60 days from now,” Mier said, noting the plan will proceed once Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approves the offering.

 

PNB recorded a 105-percent growth in net income to P3.7 billion in the first quarter of the year from P108 billion a year earlier. 

 

Net income in 2012 was up 6 percent to P5.03 billion from P4.76 billion.

 

“We continued to hold on to an 18-percent market share in remittances, Mier noted.

 

“Our global banking business focused on client loyalty and acquisition through product innovations, promotions and delivery channel expansion. 

 

“PNB-RCI in the US launched the Phone-in Remittance service. We expanded our remittance outlets in HK by partnering with convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Vanguard, VanGo, and Circle-K outlets. Our remittance beneficiaries generated a daily average deposit balance of P19.8 billion,” Mier added. — VS, GMA News