First Metro Investment Corp. realized a consolidated net income of P979.0 million in the first quarter of 2012, up 127 percent from P431.0 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement Monday.

Return on equity stood at 31.5 percent, the investment-banking arm of the Metrobank Group noted.

The Treasury Group made P479.0 million in interest income, up 79 percent or P211.0 million from P268.0 million in the same comparable period.

The Investment Banking Group, on the other hand, earned fee based income of P84 million, up 36 percent or P22 million from its P62-million budget.

First Metro president Roberto Juanchito Dispo said, “The deals pipeline remains healthy as more debt and equity capital markets fund raising are planned to be completed in the months to come. We also expect to execute one or two major project finance transactions in the second half for major power projects.”

The company’s notable deals were the Bureau of the Treasury’s P179.8-billion retail treasury bonds, SMART’s P5.5-billion fixed rate corporate notes, Manila Electric Company’s P3-billion corporate notes, San Miguel Brewery Inc.’s P20-billion corporate retail bonds, and City Savings Bank’s P3-billion fixed rate corporate notes.

The Investment Advisory Group made P65 million in net trading gains and dividend income from investment in stocks. This was 550 percent or P55 million higher the year earlier results of P10 million.

For both statutory and legal reserves as well as market opportunities, the company maintains a high level of liquidity. Consolidated assets grew by P6.4 billion in 3 months to P85.2 billion or 8.2 percent more than the P78.8 billion as of end-December 2011.

Capital funds reached P13.5 billion, about 18.4 percent or P2.1 billion more than the end-December 2011 balance.

Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 20.63 percent. —VS, GMA News