DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, reported a 52% increase in first- quarter profit as loans grew and it boosted investment banking and trading fees.
Net income rose to $807 million from $532 million a year earlier, the Singapore-based bank said in a statement on its website today. Profit beat the $755.3 million average of four analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
DBS and local rivals Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. are expanding their loan books as Singapore’s economy grew at more than twice the pace economists estimated in the first quarter. Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta plans to add more branches in China and India, and build businesses that cater to wealthy individuals as Asia’s economies outpace the rest of the world.
“DBS will share in a strong systemic loan growth because the economy has been doing well,” Leng Seng Choon, a Singapore- based analyst at DMG & Partners Securities Pte, said before the report. “Piyush has been growing the loans book and he has expansion plans for the longer term, which is a positive.”
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