DBS posts record Q1 profit

SINGAPORE - DBS, Southeast Asia's biggest lender, posted a record quarterly profit for the first three months of 2011, beating expectations on falling bad-debt charges, strong investment banking fees and a surge in trading income.

This is the third straight quarter that DBS has posted better-than-expected earnings, signalling a turnaround in its business despite low interest rates, which has hurt Singapore's biggest bank in the past because of its struggle to deploy its large deposit base profitably.

CEO Piyush Gupta, who took charge in Nov 2009 and has been praised for cleaning up the bank's balance sheet, said the bank will continue to focus on strengthening its business in Asia.

'Going forward, while the global economy remains fraught with uncertainty, and the interest rate climate continues to provide headwinds, we believe that efforts to strengthen our franchise in Asia will continue to bear fruit,' Mr Gupta said in a statement.

DBS posted a net profit of S$807 million (US$657 million) for Jan-March against S$532 million a year earlier. That compared with an average forecast of S$685 million, according to seven analysts surveyed by Reuters.



DBS's result exceeded the previous record net profit of S$722 million posted in July-September last year.



DBS was late posting its results this morning because of technical problems at the Singapore Exchange.



Strong economic growth has boosted Singapore bank profits in the past few quarters, helping cut bad debts and lifting loan growth, but low interest rates have prevented banks from taking full advantage of the rapid loan expansion.



Mr Gupta told reporters after a shareholder meeting on Thursday that he does not see a US rate tightening later this year as was expected earlier.



Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signalled on Wednesday that the US central bank is in no rush to scale back its support for the economy with the labour market still in a 'very, very deep hole.'



The three month interbank offered rate (Sibor) is currently at 0.44 per cent, languishing near record lows amid weak US interest rates.



Bad-debt charges declined 65 per cent to S$125 million from a year ago and 20 per cent from the fourth quarter. Net interest income rose 5 per cent to S$1.12 billion as net interest margins declined to 1.80 per cent from 1.93 per cent from a year earlier, but were little changed from the fourth quarter.



DBS said loan growth rose 18 per cent from a year earlier amid strong corporate borrowings in Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian markets.



Fees and commission income rose 22 per cent to S$416 million, while trading income rose 12 per cent from a year earlier and 57 per cent from the fourth quarter.



The first quarter saw the listing of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's US$5.5 billion Hutchison Port Holdings Trust's IPO in Singapore, a deal advised by DBS.



As of Thursday, DBS shares were up about 4.2 per cent so far this year, underperforming a 9.7 per cent rise in United Overseas Bank's shares. Shares of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp have fallen about 3.8 per cent so far this year after gaining about 9 per cent in 2010 when it outperformed its rivals. -- REUTERS