BNS’s Latin American focus pays off

Article Excerpt

Bank of Nova Scotia has considerable exposure to Latin America, where lower prices for commodities like metals and oil have slowed growth. However, the bank’s focus on lending to the region’s growing middle class—including credit cards, car loans, insurance and mortgages—has let it sidestep most of the slowdown and keep reporting rising profits from the area. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $60.29 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $72.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.6%, www.scotiabank.com) is the third-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with $863.1 billion of assets. In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended July 31, 2015, the bank earned $1.85 billion, up 2.8% from $1.80 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 3.6%, to $1.45 from $1.40, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue fell 5.6%, to $6.1 billion from $6.5 billion, but that was mainly because Bank of Nova Scotia sold most of its shares in mutual fund provider CI Financial (Toronto…