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Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., the lender that owns Singapore’s biggest life insurer, said third- quarter profit rose 27% on increased loan income and a jump in fees from wealth management.
Net income climbed to $570 million in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $450 million a year earlier, the Singapore-based company said in a statement today. That beat the $551.8 million average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Net income climbed to $570 million in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $450 million a year earlier, the Singapore-based company said in a statement today. That beat the $551.8 million average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Oversea-Chinese Chief Executive Officer David Conner boosted profit with the purchase of ING Groep NV’s private banking assets in Asia, which allowed the company to tap into a surge in wealth among the region’s richest people. Rising demand for loans helped compensate for narrower profit margins on lending, the bank said.
“The growth in the wealth management business looks sustainable,” said James Koh, an analyst at Singapore brokerage Kim Eng Holdings. “The growth in lending is encouraging.”
Oversea-Chinese shares rose 2% at 3:47 p.m. local time. Singapore’s Straits Times Index climbed 1.5%.
Net interest income rose 10% from a year earlier to $754 million as loans jumped 29%. Oversea-Chinese’s net interest margin, a measure of the profitability of loans, narrowed to 1.98% from 2.16%, the company said.
RICHER ASIANS
Fee and commission income jumped 37% to $260 million, driven by the addition of ING’s private-banking assets. The company’s income from wealth management more than doubled to $50 million.
Singapore’s economy grew 10.3% in the third quarter from a year earlier and the number of millionaires in the city- state has surged in the past year, bolstering private-banking income.
The number of individuals with at least US$1 million ($1.29 million) of investable assets in Asia-Pacific rose 26% to 3 million in 2009, matching Europe and almost in line with North America’s 3.1 million, according to a June report by Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch & Co. Wealth in the region, excluding Japan, is expected to rise at almost double the global pace, the Boston Consulting Group said the same month.
