Feb
21
DBS Profit Rises on Interest Income as Bad-Loan Ratio Holds
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Fourth-quarter earnings jump 20% to beat analyst estimates
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CEO Gupta says `the region’s economic fundamentals are sound’
DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s fourth-quarter profit jumped on higher interest income as its net interest margin widened to a five-year high. While the bank’s nonperforming loans increased, the ratio to total lending was unchanged. The shares rose.
Net income rose 20 percent to S$1 billion ($713 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31 from a year earlier, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank said Monday in an exchange statement. That beat the S$965 million average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg…