Toronto-Dominion Profit Rises 38% on Canadian Lending

By Doug Alexander  

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Canada’s largest lender by assets, said third-quarter profit rose 38 percent on higher earnings from domestic consumer lending and investment banking.
Net income for the period ended July 31 climbed to a record C$2.11 billion ($1.9 billion), or C$1.11 a share, from C$1.52 billion, or 79 cents, a year earlier, the Toronto-based lender said today in a statement. Profit excluding some items was C$1.15 a share, beating the C$1.09 average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
“We had very good credit quality across the board, our M&A activities have performed very well and we’ve seen good organic growth across our business,” Chief Financial Officer Colleen Johnston said in a telephone interview. “If you add those up, it’s combined to
give us a great result.”
Toronto-Dominion’s December purchase of a C$3.3 billion Visa credit-card portfolio from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce helped lift consumer-lending earnings, while higher fees from advising companies on takeovers and arranging stock sales bolstered its TD Securities investment-banking business.
Revenue rose 6 percent to C$7.51 billion from a year earlier, the bank said. Toronto-Dominion set aside C$338 million for bad loans in the quarter, down from C$477 million a year earlier.

Retail Banking

Adjusted Canadian retail profit, which includes wealth management and insurance, increased 54 percent to C$1.44 billion, as Toronto-Dominion’s December purchase of a credit-card portfolio from CIBC added to earnings. CIBC sold half its Aerogold Visa receivables after loyalty-program company Aimia Inc. ended its 22-year exclusive partnership with the bank in August and chose Toronto-Dominion as its primary partner.
U.S. retail earnings, which include wealth management and the firm’s stake in discount brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., rose 9.4 percent to C$561 million, the bank said.
The lender’s wholesale unit profit jumped 46 percent to C$216 million from a year earlier on higher investment-banking fees and trading, according to the statement. Underwriting and advisory fees advanced to C$148 million from C$89 million. Trading income gained 14 percent to C$325 million.
Earlier today, CIBC posted a 4.9 percent increase in profit, beating analysts’ estimates, on gains in investment banking and wealth management. CIBC had third-quarter net income of C$921 million ($848.7 million), or C$2.26 a share, compared with C$878 million, or C$2.13, a year earlier, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement. Profit excluding some items was C$2.23 a share, beating the C$2.21 average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Toronto-Dominion has gained 16 percent this year, the third-best performer in the eight-company Standard & Poor’s/TSX Commercial Banks Index, which has climbed 14 percent. CIBC has also climbed 16 percent this year.
(Toronto-Dominion will hold a conference call at 3 p.m. Toronto time. To listen, dial +1-416-260-0113 or +1-800-524-8950, or visit http://www.td.com/investor/qr-2014.jsp.)
(CIBC will hold a conference call to discuss results at +1-416-340-2217 or +1-888-789-9572, passcode 400010# at 8 a.m. or at www.cibc.com)