Thursday, March 20, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
Financial services giant Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. expects its loan portfolio to grow by six percent this year, putting it still at the forefront of lending activities to large corporate accounts.
Metrobank executive vice-president Vicente Cuna Jr. said the growth of the bank’s lending portfolio will come from big corporate projects involving energy, mining, infrastructure, telecommunications and possibly biofuels.
Cuna said the bank is aggressively engaging in several business development initiatives to provide lending facilities to companies across all industries, including the middle market, consumer home and auto loans.
Metrobank remains the country’s largest lender with consolidated net loans and receivables worth P300.29 billion last year, an increase of 5.17 percent from P285.52 billion in 2006.
This was brought about by increases in corporate and commercial loans to companies across all industries.
In particular, the consumer home and auto loan portfolio expanded significantly due to increased demand, better product offers like the Great Rates Sale and the prevailing attractive loan rates.
The bank also expects to extend P1 billion in loans to electric cooperatives in the countryside.
Ferdinand Antonio A. Tansingco, head of Metrobank’s Treasury Group and Corplan, said the bank has appointed International Finance Corp. (IFC) as its advisor in extending loans to electric cooperatives.
IFC recently launched a rural electrification program that seeks to strengthen the capacity of electric cooperatives in Mindanao to achieve their operational, financial, and regulatory objectives.
IFC will work with a number of electric cooperatives to create demonstration cases and project templates that can be shared with off-takers in other parts of the country.
The rural electrification program is an advisory program managed and funded by IFC and co-funded by Australia and Canada.
A study entitled “Philippines Rural Electrification Review” estimates that electric cooperatives need medium- to long-term financing of over $1.3 billion during the next 10 years to replace capital equipment that, for the most part, is now between 20-30 years old.
Last year, Metrobank reported a consolidated unaudited net income of P7.04 billion or an increase of 27.5 percent from the 2006 figure. Net interest income rose 12.29 percent to P21.45 billion from P19.1 billion a year earlier.
Meanwhile, non-interest income grew 11.7 percent to P17.04 billion on account of improving fee-based income and higher trading and securities gains.
This led to a 12.03 percent increase in its total operating income of P38.49 billion in 2007, from P34.36 billion in 2006.
Metrobank, the country’s first billion-dollar bank in assets and the first financial institution to reach a global mark, has a network of over 800 local and international branches/offices, remittance offices and subsidiaries.
It has 544 domestic branches and 37 offices in New York, California, Chicago, Canada, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Pusan, Guam, Taipei, Shanghai, Madrid, Barcelona, Vienna, Rome, Bologna, Milan and Singapore.
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