We have a BUY call, premised on loan growth (driven by corporate and retail business), a sustained NIM, non-NII expansion (led by a recovery in retail fee income), good cost management, and lighter LLPs. BBL is currently one of our top picks among the big banks for its inexpensive valuation metrics and good dividend. BUY!
Earnings were 11% below our expectation
BBL reported 1Q22 earnings of Bt7.1bn, up by 3% YoY and 13% QoQ. The result was 11% below our projection (and 7% shy of the Bloomberg consensus), due to lower non-NII (lower gains on financial instruments) than assumed. Pre-provision operating profit came to Bt15.5bn, up 9% YoY but down 1% QoQ. 1Q22 earnings comprise 22% of our full-year forecast of Bt32.6bn.