Q1 net profit rises to S$2.69 bln vs S$2.48 bln estimate
Net interest margin climbs to 2.14%
Return on equity hits record high of 19.4%
DBS declares dividend of 54 Singapore cents per share
SINGAPORE, May 2 (Reuters) - Singapore's biggest bank DBS Group expects its net profit this year to grow from 2023, it said on Thursday, after posting a 15% rise in first quarter net profit that beat expectations, driven by strong total income growth.
Total income growth was projected to be 1 to 2 percentage points above previous guidance of the mid-single-digits, according to DBS CEO Piyush Gupta's outlook observations slides accompanying the results.
Group net interest income is expected to be modestly better than 2023 levels, he said in the slides.
Commercial book non-interest income growth was expected to be in the mid-to high teens percent on better-than-expected momentum in wealth management and treasury customer sales, according to the slides.
DBS, the first Singapore lender to report this earnings season, said January-March net profit rose to S$2.96 billion ($2.18 billion) from S$2.57 billion a year earlier on the back of a stable net interest margin, higher fee income and treasury customer sales.
This beat the mean estimate of S$2.48 billion from five analysts, LSEG data showed.
The quarterly net profit was the highest since the S$2.69 billion it reported in the second quarter of 2023.
Return on equity, or ROE, also hit a record high of 19.4% in the first quarter, up from 18.6% a year ago.
DBS, which is also Southeast Asia's biggest lender, announced a dividend of 54 Singapore cents per share for the first quarter.
DBS's net interest margin, a key profitability gauge, rose slightly to 2.14% during the quarter from 2.12% a year earlier.
($1 = 1.3600 Singapore dollars)