Earnings Labs

Banco Santander-Chile (BSAC)

Q3 2010 Earnings Call· Sun, Nov 7, 2010

$33.01

-1.24%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Third Quarter Banco Santander Chile Earnings Conference Call. My name is Marcela and I will be your operator for today. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Raimundo Monge, Director of Strategy. Please proceed, sir.

Raimundo Monge

Management

Thank you very much and sorry for being late. We had some technicalities with the webcast. Good morning. First of all, good morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Banco Santander Chile third quarter 2010 results conference call. My name is Raimundo Monge, Director of Strategic Planning of the Bank and I’m joined today by Robert Moreno, Manager of Investor Relations. Thank you for attending today’s conference call and in which we will discuss our performance in 3Q ‘10. Afterwards, we will be happy to answer your questions. In the nine months period ended September 30, 2010, net income attributable to shareholders increased 30.4% compared to the result in the same period of last year. The Bank’s net interest margin reached 5.9% that is 40 basis point higher than in the first nine months of ‘09. The efficiency ratio in the first nine months reached 34%, while the banks ROE reached 30.5% among the highest in Chile’s financial system. In the third of this year, net income attributable to shareholders totaled CLP125,356 million that is CLP0.67 per share and USD1.42/ADR. These results represent an increase of 14.1% compared to 3Q ‘09 with this result the bank ROE in the quarter reached 29.3% and efficiency levels stood at 33.8%. By business segment, result was driven mainly by retail activity. In line with our strategic objective, gross income, net of provision and cost in retail banking increased 23.5% Q-on-Q and 42.1% year-on-year. Net interest income grew 18.9% during Q and 15.1% during year driven by long growth and higher margins with both individuals and small and middle size companies, SME. Fee income grew 3.7% Q-on-Q and 4.8% Y-on-Y in these segment. This reflects the more recurring nature of our earnings growth and return on equity. The bank capitalization ratios also strength in…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Saul Martinez with JP Morgan. Please proceed. Saul Martinez – JP Morgan: Hi, good morning, Raimundo. My question is on your net interest margin and net interest income evolution. You did mention that that is – that growing in retail segment is one of the, the top goals, the number one goal, I guess, of the four you illustrated, and you also gave various moving parts in terms of what drove the NIM including higher funding cost on the one side, but growth and retail lending on the other. Having said all these, you had – I would have thought your net interest margin, net interest income growth would have been stronger this quarter given that we had deflation in the year ago quarter, inflation this quarter and you had very strong retail lending growth. Can you give us a sense for how you think your net interest margin will evolve going forward considering the various impacts that I mentioned, the higher margin cost associated with higher rates and retail lending growing as well. Should we see stability in the NIM or do you expect to see some contraction going forward. Secondly, on the fees, you talked a lot about cross-selling your alliances, but your fee growth was only 2% year-on-year. Can you talk a little bit about where you’re seeing pressure and what the expectation for fee growth is going forward, whether you expect to see it pickup there?

Raimundo Monge

Management

Okay. Well, thank you for your questions. Addressing number one, maybe there’s margin in the very short terms specifically in September. We’re affected by an abnormally low inflation rate that we saw that month. That situation is very short-term and should reverse in October, yes and to some extend in November, yes. We have been – as most analyst, I expect inflation to keep on growing because of a higher economic activity and a normalization acquisition level. We are positioning our balance sheet to benefit from a higher inflation normalizing towards level growth to 3.5, comes in deadline this year and 2011. So, when you have zero inflation that produces a short-term drag during this margin. But this is a very short-term inclination, and this should be mostly counted in October. In terms of the more medium term concern with this probably worthwhile addressing, we think that our margins have probably picked this cycle and that because of three things will be under pressure and there are some counterbalance in effect. Number one is that the risk environment is much more sounder than say 12 months ago as we show in our press release, as the quality indicator have been improving. So, naturally the gross margins are under strain because the clients that we’re willing to accept 13 margins now are in a much better position and therefore you don’t charge the margins that are for you to charge say 18 months ago, so that is element number one. Second, again, in the short-term, the rate had been increasing, the short-term rate and that produces a short-term compression in our margins because the repricing of the liabilities, which are tend to be shorter than the asset produce a short-term compression because you would price them very quickly as oppose to…

Raimundo Monge

Management

Yes. That was a change that was introduced by the superintendent before commercial lending, yes. Saul Martinez – JP Morgan: Yes.

Raimundo Monge

Management

The first draft was perceived to be very harsh especially because of our loan – not ours, but for all the system, there was no major deterioration, not relevant deterioration on asset quality on the commercial side. So, the industry well claimed that it was too harsh given the status of the segments and given the fact that we were entering more positive cycles. So, the superintendent set a more light scheme, which will be in placed starting on January the 1st that has – as most of the new regulations, some positive and some negative. But net-net [ph], are good for the system to be more conservative than not, has been part of explanation why Chilean banks have emerged in a relatively solid position and they shouldn’t be very binding from a profitability standpoint because you will see the positive force coming from an improved operational improvement, to some extent blurred by these more conservative provision levels. But net-net [ph], we think that provisions should be attract to our performance. But this year, they have been fairly positive. Next year, probably neutral or slightly positive. Saul Martinez – JP Morgan: Okay, great. That’s very helpful. Thanks, Raimundo.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tito Labarta with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed. Tito Labarta – Deutsche Bank: Hi. Good morning, Raimundo. Thanks for the call. So, a couple of questions, following up in terms of the provisioning levels. As you mentioned, it have come down quite a bit. See, I just want to get a sense going forward given that the focus on retail loans. Do you think that could have an impact at all just so from the shift and the loan mix that provisions and such increases. I want to get a sense of what you think the recurring levels of provisions will be going forward, should it stay around what we saw in the third quarter excluding the one-time items or did that either come down further or could it pickup. And then also just get a sense in terms of the loan growth; these loans have been growing above the system level. What kind of loan growth do you see for next year? And then finally, just one question on the tax rate since it was a bit lower given this mentioned the deferred taxes, just want to get since that’s just a one-time thing or is this going to go back in the fourth quarter to normal levels and they go up to 20% starting next year.

Raimundo Monge

Management

Sorry, could you repeat the last part of it because I understood that you’re concerned about provisions going forward, loan growth forward, but the third part, I didn’t get it. Tito Labarta – Deutsche Bank: Sorry, just on the tax rate. It’s a bit lower.

Raimundo Monge

Management

Tax? Tito Labarta – Deutsche Bank: Yes.

Raimundo Monge

Management

Okay. Tito Labarta – Deutsche Bank: Yes.

Raimundo Monge

Management

Yes. Well, in terms of the provisions, the IFRS said that at least is for the remaining of this year and to a lot of the extent the first half, then you’d be contributors to all bottom line performance. From then on, they will start picking up mostly because of as you correctly point because of the next effect, you will be growing in high yielding, but of course higher rate per segment. And the fact that we have been adjusting our score into a more demanding, we have been anticipating the recognition of provisions. We have been slicing and dicing our scoring to incorporate more richly the different kinds of risks that we saw in the downturn of the economy. At some moment, will be reflected in provisions starting to grow again and probably will enter to 2011, yes. But we still we are like 20 to 30% above the gross provision level, above the whole [ph] times before the downturn started. So, we think there is room there for improvement, but we’re seeing the floor probably in the first half of next year. In terms of loan growth, we have been growing faster than the market throughout the year and we started in the second half of last year to gain a market share. That process has been achieved in all the segments and with the prices that we expect given our capital consumption and given our profitability target. We think that eventually the competition will start to grow again and we will see pressures and that process will be less difficult. But the other forces, the recovery of the economy and the growth outlook of the economy, as we anticipate [ph] increasing in this seven to eight months despite the effect of the earthquake and that’s we…

Raimundo Monge

Management

That’s right. That’s why you should be more into 14 to 15% more or less. Tito Labarta – Deutsche Bank: Okay, great. Thanks, Raimundo.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Jason Mollin with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed. Jason Mollin – Goldman Sachs: Hello, everyone. Thank you for hosting the call. My first question is related to the impact of the currency, the strong Chilean peso. It’s appreciated of about 10% since June. If you can give us a sense how this is impacting your clients, the economy in general and then directly and/or indirectly the Bank, and what are your expectations for the currency going forward? And my second question is a follow-up a bit on what you were suggesting on the credit scoring changes for the consumer segment. If you can describe a little bit what that entailed? Why are we seeing this now? Is it just because of the experience you had in recent quarters or is this incorporating a different sense of risk for the Chilean consumer going forward? We have seen reasonable growth in that segment. Is this acknowledging that let’s say, the penetration of credit is higher and credit scoring needs to be different?

Raimundo Monge

Management

Okay. In terms of currency, I have to be very humble. Nobody knows very well, where the [inaudible] is about, yes. Our economy think that it should be stable and today, the bet is whether the Central Bank will be intervening the market to some extent or not, which is a subsidized [ph] very difficult to predict. But in terms of the impact, in the case of the bank, the directing is very limited because we have at all times, we’re almost close in terms of the extend [ph] rate. In the intra-day, you can generate an open or close position for – but it’s very – it’s not a relevant gap that we have. It’s very expensive to have a high gap in terms of currency mismatch and that’s why banks usually operate very close to being completely close, yes. In terms of the impact on our clients, there are good and bad news; some marginal exposures are facing the heat of our strong currency and are having difficulties. In terms of up to now, in terms of low profitability because the majority of a big bunch, a big proportion of our exporters are related to commodities to food, to mining, et cetera, where you have had price increases in some cases compensating fully or partially compensation for the strength of the currency. So, the other thing is that Chile has a very diversified explored mix. So, if your exporting to non-dollar areas – well, the prices are very competitive as well. So, basically for exporting to U.S. denominated songs [ph] you face the [inaudible]. The price of basic commodities, but you know still at a very high level. So, that’s why there are compensations, but some of them are facing difficulty. In terms of profitability up to now,…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) At this time, there is no more questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Raimundo Monger for closing remarks.

Raimundo Monge

Management

Okay. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to participate in today’s call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon. Have a good day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen that conclude today’s conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.