By Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore's biggest bank DBS Group maintained its 2025 outlook after posting a 1% rise in second-quarter net profit on Thursday that beat expectations on the back of higher total income.
"While external uncertainties remain, we have opportunities ahead of us," Chief Executive Officer Tan Su Shan said in a statement.
"Our proactive management of the balance sheet puts us in a good position to navigate the interest rate cycle, while strong capital and liquidity
ensure we are well placed to support customers," she added.
Tan maintained the 2025 outlook in general, including anticipating group net interest income slightly above 2024 levels, and net profit to be below 2024 levels, according to her observations and slides accompanying the results.
DBS's results followed that of smaller peer Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, which posted on Friday an in-line second quarter net profit, but cut its 2025 net interest income expectations and flagged persisting tariff uncertainty.
Major global lenders such as HSBC and Standard Chartered reported a mixed bag of results last week, with some also highlighting the impact from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
DBS, Southeast Asia's biggest lender by assets, said April-June net profit climbed to S$2.82 billion ($2.19 billion) from S$2.79 billion a year earlier.
That beat the mean estimate of S$2.77 billion from three analysts, according to LSEG data.
It declared an ordinary dividend of 60 Singapore cents per share and a Capital return dividend of 15 Singapore cents per share for the second quarter
DBS' second quarter return on equity declined to 16.7%, from 18.2% a year ago.
Net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, dropped to 2.05% in the second quarter from 2.14% in the same period a year earlier.
($1 = 1.2848 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Leslie Adler, Chris Reese and Kim Coghill)
