UOB posts US$451.95 million net profits

UOB posts US$451.95 million net profits

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore's leading banks, United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOB) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC), yesterday announced double-digit group net profits for calendar 1995 but they fell below analysts' expectations.

UOB said group net profits rose 10.9 percent from a year earlier to S$632.73 million (US$451.95 million) in 1995.

The profits came amid an increase in net interest income to S$961.20 million from S$881.89 million in 1994, UOB said.

The UOB result was slightly below analysts' expectations for a 13 percent jump in earnings to S$641.6 million.

UOB chairman Wee Cho Yaw said group net profits were held down by a poor performance at several subsidiaries but particularly by a loss in the bank's brokerage operations due to lower stock turnover last year.

He predicted that 1996 group net profit growth would be about the same as in 1995.

The OCBC said in a statement that group net profits rose 12.5 percent from a year earlier to S$604.99 million in calendar 1995.

The bank added that it registered a 19 percent increase in net interest income to S$927.4 million last year.

Analysts had expected OCBC's net profits to increase by 15 percent to S$616.8 million.

UOB and OCBC are among Singapore's top four banks together with Overseas Union Bank Ltd. (OUB) and Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), both of which had also posted lower-than- expected 1995 results.

OUB's group net profits rose 18.6 percent to S$259.3 million while DBS's group net profits increased by 11.6 percent to S$594.6 million.