Metrobank first half profit up 45% to $144.04mn

Metrobank’s profit is catching up with that of the industry leader BPI, which amounted to $146.4mn.

Metropolitan Band and Trust Co. booked P6.1 billion ($144.04 million) in consolidated net profit in the first semester, up 45 percent from a year ago, on higher earnings from core lending and other financial services.

For the second quarter alone, net profit surged 83 percent year-on-year to P3 billion ($70.84 million), the bank disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

This performance boosted the bank’s average return on equity (ROE) to 13 percent from 10.7 percent a year ago.

In terms of nominal peso profit, Metrobank is thus fast catching up with industry leader Bank of the Philippine Islands, which reported P6.2 billion ($146.4 million) in net profit (up 12 percent year-on-year) over the same period.

The banking arm of the Ty family has also grown its balance sheet by 16 percent to P965.4 billion ($22,79 billion) in consolidated resources at end-June compared with Banco de Oro Unibank’s P1.03 trillion ($24.32 billion) in resources as of the same period.

View the full story in The Philippine Daily Inquirer.