Higher interest earnings lifted Security Bank’s profit to P2.4b in Q1

SECURITY Bank Corp. said Friday it posted a net profit of P2.4 billion in the first quarter, driven by growth in core businesses.

The bank said that on a sequential quarter-on-quarter basis, net profit increased 18 percent. Net interest margin improved to 4.06 percent, up by 14 basis points from the previous quarter.

Net interest income also increased 3-percent quarter-on-quarter.

Security Bank said revenues grew 6 percent year-on-year to P9.8 billion. Net interest income increased 7 percent to P7.5 billion, while non-interest income rose 2 percent to P2.3 billion, driven by service charges, fees and commissions.

Operating expenses went up 12 percent from the level a year ago, on investments in manpower and technology.

Pre-provision operating profit was P3.7 billion.

The bank allocated P616 million as provisions for credit losses in the first quarter. Gross non-performing loan ratio was at 3.12 percent, down from 3.65 percent a year earlier.

Gross non-performing loans went down from the previous quarter by

1 percent. NPL reserve cover was at 99 percent, up from 90 percent a year ago. Return on shareholders’ equity was

7.42 percent, while return on assets was

1.15 percent in the quarter.

Security Bank said total deposits reached P525 billion. Low-cost savings and demand deposits as percent of total deposit increased to 62 percent in the first quarter from 58 percent in the previous quarter. The bank shed high-cost deposits, resulting in time deposits decreasing 3 percent year-on-year and 28 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Net loans went up 5 percent year-onyear to P489 billion, led by retail loans which grew 18 percent and wholesale loans which went up 1 percent. Home loans climbed 18 percent and credit cards increased 36 percent year-on-year.

Retail loans represented 26 percent of total loans in the first quarter, up from 23 percent a year ago.

The bank said it continues to have healthy liquidity, with liquidity coverage ratio of 167 percent and net stable funding ratio of 127 percent as of endMarch 2023.

NGCP calls for better coordination to avoid repeat of power grid alerts

By Alena Mae S. Flores

NATIONAL Grid Corp. of the Philippines on Friday called for a holistic solution and better coordination within the energy supply chain to address the country’s power supply situation.

NGCP spokesperson lawyer Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said while the power grid had some “inadequacies”, planning should be well coordinated across all sectors—distribution, generation and transmission.

PHINMA said in a disclosure to the stock exchange consolidated revenues rose 6 percent to P4.78 billion in the first three months.

The company said it expects stronger growth in the coming months as both local and global economies recover. “The strong topline growth we saw in the full year of 2022 has continued in the first three months of this year. We had to address the headwinds but we were also able to ride the tailwinds in our industries,” PHINMA president and chief operating officer Chito Salazar said.

The company expects to sustain its growth momentum across its business units, which is expected to be driven particularly by the large underserved market outside Metro Manila this year. Jenniffer B. Austria

BOC, AmCham discuss common economic goals

THE Bureau of Customs expressed willingness to collaborate with the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, noting the importance of strong partnerships to achieve goals on trade and economic development.

Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio said this during a meeting with AmCham executive director Ebb Hinchliffe that discussed various issues and concerns affecting American and Philippine businesses in the country.

“We believe that through continuous collaboration and dialogue with our partners, such as the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, we can achieve our goals and make significant contributions to the country’s socio-economic growth,” Rubio said.

Rubio cited AmCham’s continuous drive towards achieving a common goal of contributing to the socio-economic growth of the Philippines by promoting American and Philippine businesses.

Rubio also presented the Customs’ Five-Point Priority Program, which aims to improve efficiency, upgrade systems and processes, and promote integrity and professionalism. Julito G. Rada

BPI head wins top award as Communicator of the Year

THE chief executive of one of the biggest banks in the Philippines and a cross-cultural communication strategist from Australia clinched the top honors at the 2023 Communicator of the Year Awards.

Bank of the Philippine Islands president and CEO Jose Teodoro Limcaoco won in the Executive Leader category, while Maryanne Kepui, whose 20-year career spans government, corporate enterprise and the not-for-profit sector, won in the Senior Communication Professional category.

The winners will be honored in person at the 2023 Communicator of the Year Awards ceremony during the IABC Asia Pacific regional conference “Fusion 2023: Making Waves Together” in Bali, Indonesia on September 4 to 5, 2023.

As a leader who routinely calls employees to commend them for a job well done, Limcaoco, or TG, as he is more popularly known in the Philippines, has taken efforts to shape BPI’s culture built on the bank’s core values of being nurturing, acting with integrity, being customer obsessed and pursuing excellence.

“I am truly honored and humbled to receive this award. I have always believed that nothing beats honest and sincere communication no matter one’s position or state of life. One has to listen well and understand where the other party is coming from to be able to communicate with clarity, conviction, and compassion. Banking is a business of trust, and we try our best every day to be worthy of this trust and confidence by living our core values—being nurturing, acting with integrity, being customer obsessed, and pursuing excellence—to truly make a difference in people’s lives,” he said.

Robinsons Land spending P20b on expansion plan

By Jenniffer B. Austria

PROPERTY developer Robinsons

BATANES PROJECTS. Department of Science and Technology undersecretary for regional operations Sancho Mabborang, together with regional director Virginia Bilgera, provincial director Nora Garcia and their team and Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc. president Nelson Santos visit the Office of Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco for smart and sustainable projects supporting the tourism Industry. Maborang expressed his full support to the tourism projects in the province and their direction towards smart and sustainable development and his appreciation to the province for valuing science, technology and innovation. Among the S&T projects with funding assistance to be launched in the province are shrimp and lobster culture, water desalination and waste management and disposal.

Alabanza said there should be cooperation among generational companies and distribution utilities to avoid a repeat of the yellow and red alerts recently.

“All protection settings of gencos should be checked, together with grid settings,” she said.

Alabanza said NGCP is open to calls for audits from various sectors. “We also opened ourselves to inspections and audits by different government agencies. For so long as covered by regulatory framework, we are open to it,” Alabanza said.

“As long as it is under the regulatory framework we function in, including our concession agreement, our franchise and all applicable rules and regulations, we are open,” she said.

Meanwhile, NGCP committed to completing several large transmission projects within the next few months to help strengthen the transmission system and better support the power system.

Alabanza said there were many factors that resulted in the delays such as right-of-way, permitting and COVID-19.

“We need to make up for the years of difficulties that we encountered. Even during COVID, we did as much as we could. But we are committed to finishing within the next few months, so we can help strengthen the power system. But again, we can only commit to developing our part, but the whole energy supply chain needs to be resilient,” she said.

DTI chief promotes ‘soft connectivity’ to boost investments in BIMP-EAGA region

By Othel V. Campos

DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual underscored the importance of promoting and improving “soft connectivity” to boost investments in the Brunei Darussalam-IndonesiaMalaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area.

Pascual said during the 15th BIMP-

EAGA Summit in Indonesia the growth in the sub-region is timely as DTI promotes increased engagements and private sector participation in the initiative.

“DTI’s active involvement in the BIMP-EAGA regions is set to come up with a campaign and information drive to initiate a stronger presence of the local private and LGU counterparts in the BIMP-EAGA. We will work for the development and promotion of sub-regional value chains to enhance the region’s competitiveness. This will likewise provide an opportunity for MSMEs to increase their participation in said value and supply chains,” Pascual said. He said to enhance MSME participation in the initiative, the DTI would link the private sector such as the BIMPEAGA Business Council, Philippine

Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its regional chapters and MSME groups including home entrepreneurs to promote “soft connectivity” through increased investment fora, trade fair participations and business-to-business sessions.

Pascual said the Philippines aimed to expand Philippine Halal trade with key trade partners such as Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Land Corp. budgeted P20 billion for expansion this year as it plans to roll out more malls, hotels, residential and office projects.

RLC president and chief executive Frederick Go said during the annual stockholders meeting Friday the company would fund this year’s capital expenditure budget through internally-generated cash from operation and borrowings.

“After almost three years of navigating through global health crisis, RLC forges ahead with confidence and optimism. In 2023 we will continue to invest in our diversified portfolio, expanding the breadth of our products and introducing customer driven innovations to deliver sustainable value in an ever changing environment ,” Go said.

Go said RLC would open Opus Mall within its mixed-use development in Pasig City this year. The high-end mall will expand its shopping gross leasable area by 3 percent to 1.66 million square meters.

RLC is also increasing its office leasing portfolio this year by 7 percent to 792,000 sq. m. of net leasable area with completion of GBF Tower in Pasig. The Grade A office building will cater to both traditional and multinational corporations and business process outsourcing companies.

The company said that with the resurgence of international travel and tourism, it would accelerate the expansion of hotel and resort business.

The property firm is opening Westin Manila Sonata Place in Ortigas Center and the remaining rooms in Go Hotel Tuguegarao and Fili Hotel Nustar in Cebu. These projects will increase the group’s hotel room count by 18 percent to 4,241.