LandBank confident of hitting P13.5-B profit goal

The state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) is on track to meet its full-year income target of P13.5 billion, on the back of steady growth for the first nine months of 2016.

The bank’s net income for the period stood at P10.3 billion, which exceeds by two percent its year-to-date target of P10.13 billion.

LandBank’s return on eq­uity for the quarter was at 15.8 percent while its net interest margin stood at 3.14 percent.

Total assets of the bank also grew by a hefty 17 per­cent to P1.3 trillion from P1.1 trillion in the same period last year, buoyed by growth in loans and investments.

The bank’s gross loan portfolio grew 9 percent to P481.9 billion from P441.1 billion, while investments grew 55 percent to P471.9 billion from P303.6 billion in Septem­ber 2015.

LandBank President and CEO Alex Buenaventura, who assumed his post last Novem­ber 11, said this puts Land­Bank in a good position to fur­ther expand its services, reach, and support especially to farm­ers and fishers, microenterpris­es, and small and medium en­terprises (SMEs). “This will be our priority moving forward, as we strive to keep the balance of maintaining our financial via­bility and fulfilling our devel­opment mandate,” he added.

Buenaventura takes on the helm of LandBank with a solid performance base, with total deposits of P1.2 trillion as of September 2016, up 18 percent from the year-ago level of P991.3 billion. Total capital meanwhile stood at P91.1 bil­lion, 18 percent higher than P77.3 billion for the same pe­riod last year. LandBank is the only universal bank present in all provinces of the country with its nationwide network of 365 branches and 1,607 auto­matic teller machines (ATMs).