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In a press statement released last July 27, 2006, Fitch Ratings, a leading global rating agency committed to providing the world's credit markets with accurate, timely and prospective credit opinions, assigned a National Long Term rating of ‘AA-‘ to Security Bank Corporation, one of the leading universal banks in the country today. At the same time, the agency affirmed Security Bank’s Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (“IDRs”) at ‘BB’ with a Stable Outlook, its Individual and Support ratings at ‘D’ and ‘4’, respectively.
According to the statement of Fitch, “The ratings of Security Bank reflect its good profitability and adequate level of capital. The Bank has historically focused on medium-sized enterprises owned by Filipino-Chinese, but has since widened its focus to include larger blue-chip corporates and consumers, particularly high net worth individuals.”
This statement of Fitch was solidified by Security Bank when it announced its net income of P1.01 billion for the first semester of 2006. The sum – 50.7% more than the P670 million earnings for the same period last year – is probably the highest increase among all bank earnings for the first half of this year.
In addition, the Bank’s earnings per share for the first semester of 2006 likewise increased to P3.07 from only P2.03 per share. It also showed considerable improvement on return on equity as well hitting an annualized average of 19.5%, a significant growth over the 12.6% in the same period last year.
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