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Bloomberg
Bank of Nova Scotia’s focus on international banking is paying off. The Canadian lender, which has operations in about 50 countries, earned a record C$725 million ($571 million) from overseas businesses in the fiscal first quarter, up 14 percent from a year earlier. Those contributions, along with gains in Canadian banking, helped it post total profit that beat analysts
estimates.
Scotiabank is expanding in Latin America through acquisitions including its December agreement to buy Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s 68 percent stake in a Chilean lender, and a January deal to buy Citigroup Inc.’s Colombian consumer and small-business banking operations. Latin America accounted for 62 percent of international banking earnings in the quarter ended January 31.
“The strong momentum in our business was driven by double digit growth in loans in the Pacific Alliance countries, positive operating leverage and good credit quality,†Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter, who has focused on growth in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia, said in a statement.
The lender’s shares climbed 1.4 percent to as much as C$79.86 at 10:06 a.m. in Toronto, the best performance in the S&P/TSX Composite Banks Index and paring this year’s decline to 1.5 percent.