COL FINANCIAL Group, Inc. reported on Monday that its net income surged by 38% to P582 million in 2021, driven by a jump in commission revenues.
“While ranking #1 is not the benchmark that we measure our success on, we believe that this is the natural result of our strategy to focus on serving our customers,” COL Financial President and Chief Executive Conrado F. Bate said in a statement.
“By giving our self-directed investors the tools and knowledge that they need to invest wisely, this group of investors continues to become a bigger and more influential part of the country’s investing landscape,” he added.
Meanwhile, consolidated revenues rose to P1.3 billion, while its client assets hit P112 billion as the company saw P6.7 billion in net new flows.
The financial group reported that its client base also hit almost half a million investors by the end of 2021.
COL Financial said that it benefited from the increase in market activity in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), due to its strategy of focusing on its retail investor base.
“As a result, COL ranked as the #1 stockbroker in the Philippines for the second year in a row, with a record market share of 8.6%,” the company said.
On the fund distribution side, the company said it started offering access to global funds through its platform.
“For the first time, COL clients were able to invest in a global multi-asset fund, resulting in a strong take-up from customers looking for investments outside of the local stock market,” it said.
Working with its fund partners, the firm said it intends to “continue its expansion of global products by adding over 20 global, theme-based equity funds in the first half of 2022.”
On April 27, the company said that it would pay out P0.085 per share in cash dividends to its shareholders. The dividends are equivalent to 65% of the company’s profits last year, and is 30.7% higher than its cash dividends from the previous year.
For 2022, COL Financial said it would continue its adoption of more efficient and scalable technologies, in addition to increasing its product offerings to address the different needs of its existing and prospective customers.
“While the current market conditions are more challenging than last year’s, we believe that we’ll be able to weather different market environments as long as we stick to our long-term strategy of putting our clients first at all times,” said Mr. Bate.
COL Financial shares ended lower on Monday by 1.63% or six centavos to close at P3.62 apiece at the stock exchange. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
